A police officer who stole and sold the illegal drugs he was meant to dispose of has been ordered to pay back more than £135,000. Keith Boots stole drugs that were supposed to have been incinerated, selling them to criminal gangs instead. His home was raided and cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and cannabis were found with an estimated street value of £509,763. The Proceeds of Crime team at the Crown Prosecution Service obtained a restraint order against Keith Boots to ensure assets held by him were secured for confiscation. At a confiscation hearing today (24 April), Boots was found to have benefitted from £556,400. This figure includes the street value of the drugs, £44,053 of unexplained credits to his bank accounts and £2,584 of expenditure from an unknown source.
The court ordered Boots to repay £135,280 after hearing he had equity on his home, a substantial lump sum taken from his police pension before he was charged, £4,000 he gifted to a family member and a valuable watch. Boots was ordered to pay the full amount within three months or would be given a further prison sentence of 18 months at Teesside Crown Court.
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