His trusting colleagues thought he was going about his normal business... they didn't have a clue he was running a secret criminal life
manchestereveningnews.co.ukHis colleagues in GMP's serious crime division thought Andrew 'Tolly' Talbot was just going about his usual business - a veteran crime-fighter with a reputation for locking up drug dealers - when he was visiting the store room in the offices, where drugs seized from the streets were kept.
They trusted him and had no reason to suspect anything untoward. He'd spent three distinguished years in the army and then 18 years at GMP, first on the Salford division and then joining the serious organised crime department, helping to lock up some of Greater Manchester's biggest villains.
But in fact, he was one of them. Right under the noses of unsuspecting colleagues, he was ripping open bags of seized cocaine in that store room inside GMP's offices at Nexus House in Ashton-under-Lyne and stuffing as much of the class A drug into the pockets of his jeans as he could.
His trial heard the store, which houses vast amounts of drugs seized from the streets, was 'run on trust' and 'lacking effective supervision' - meaning Talbot just walked into the store room and helped himself to cocaine.
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