The smash hit BBC drama Line of Duty kept millions of viewers glued to their screens over its six seasons.
Last year around 9.6 million viewers tuned in for the first episode of what was widely expected to be its last run.
However Martin Compston, who starred as Detective Sergeant Steve Arnott, suggested this week that there is "certainly scope" for more to come from AC-12.
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While elements of the rollercoaster plotlines leave some people struggling to suspend their disbelief, Line of Duty is inspired in part by real-life cases of police corruption, according to screenwriter Jed Mercurio.
Merseyside Police has had its own struggles with officers and links to organised crime, and has its own version of AC-12 - the Professional Standards Department (PSD) and Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU).
Chief Superintendent Peter Costello, head of PSD, told the ECHO: “Merseyside Police is extremely proud of its employees, the vast majority of whom do a fantastic job and uphold the standards demanded of them day in, day out, but a small minority do not, and we cannot afford to have individuals working for us who do not strive to uphold these standards.
“Our communities rightly expect, and deserve, the highest level of commitment and professionalism, and any failings in meeting these expectations can damage public confidence and trust in the police. Maintaining and delivering professional behaviour is an absolute priority for the force and we treat all failings and complaints extremely seriously, ensuring they are thoroughly investigated by the Professional Standards Department and the appropriate action is taken.”
The detective, the TV star and the drugs cartel
Some of the trademark twists and turns of the Line of Duty script may verge on the incredulous.
But the case of Detective Chief Inspector Elmore Davies could have been lifted straight from the pages of a Jed Mercurio script.
The force veteran has had the unenviable title of becoming what is believed to be the most senior police officer convicted for corruption offences in UK history.
DCI Davies, a senior figure in the Force's drugs squad and described as a "copper's copper", had a long and storied career which even included two years on secondment investigating drugs cartels in the Turks and Caicos Islands - including the brother-in-law of Colombian drugs lord Pablo Escobar.
Back in Merseyside, three months away from retirement, Davies reportedly became increasingly embittered.
However it was an unlikely friendship with Mike Ahearne, a bodybuilder and star of the 90s ITV hit series Gladiators, that proved to be his undoing.
In 1998 DCI Davies, then 50, was jailed alongside Ahearne, aka 'The Warrior', and underworld figure Tony Bray for corruption and perverting the course of justice.
The three men had been convicted of attempting to derail the prosecution of Philip Glennon Jnr, the 'brother in law' of Merseyside's most notorious drugs lord Curtis Warren.
Glennon Jnr had been arrested for firing off gunshots at a bouncer who kicked him out of the Venue Club in Green Lane, Tuebrook, on July 14, 1996.
According to reports at the time, the bouncer was allegedly paid by associates of Warren for his silence - but the incident had been witnessed by a PC Gary Titterington.
Toxteth native Warren, then one of the most connected and powerful gangsters in Europe, was keen to help get his girlfriend's brother, Glennon Jnr, out of a lengthy jail sentence and set to work.
Unfortunately for all involved, Warren, who was living in the Netherlands, was under investigation by an international coalition of law enforcement agencies.
A wiretap captured a call from Warren to his man in Liverpool, long term associate Tony Bray - in which Warren was recorded saying: "Can't we do anything to help him? What bizzies can we get to?".
Bray replied: "I know someone who knows someone called Elmore Davies."
The drug Lord said: "Elmore? Elly? What kind of f****** name is that? Offer the middleman two grand and see what happens."
"The middleman" turned out to be Ahearne, who had developed a close friendship with Davies when the two shared a flat together in Wirral.
Ahearne is also understood to have worked alongside Warren on the doors of Liverpool's clubland before his TV career took off.
The conversation set in motion a major probe by Merseyside's anti corruption unit, which in an extraordinary move decided to bug the home of one of its own force's senior detectives.
In December 1996, specialist officers drilled a hole through the roof of Davies's flat in Brancote Road, Oxton and installed a tiny listening device in the ceiling.
In a shameful betrayal of his colleagues, Davies took the bait and agreed to pass on confidential information about PC Titterington to Ahearne.
According to ECHO reports from the trial, the pair were heard discussing the best way to "f*** the case up."
Ahearne took the information and dictated it to Bray during a meeting at the TV star’s Victorian mansion in Rose Mount, Oxton.
Later the same day anti-corruption detectives raided the property and caught them red-handed with the damning notes.
It emerged Ahearne had been paid £10,000 in cash by Bray during a handover at a golf driving range in Rock Ferry five days earlier.
Nottingham Crown Court heard two days after the handover Ahearne entered a post office to settle a £7,500 tax bill, which he paid using £1,000 bundles of £10 notes - before stashing the remaining £2,500 in his wardrobe.
Davies, who is reported to have expressed regret over returning to the UK from his crime fighting secondment in the Caribbean, was jailed for five years, while Ahearne received 15 months behind bars and Bray three years.
High Court judge Mr Justice Curtis, sentencing, told Davies: "You cynically betrayed the trust placed in you as a senior police officer by ordinary members of the public."
At the time, ECHO reporter Jo Robathan reported a conversation with a former colleague of Davies.
The source said: "People like the glamour, the romance of being around celebrity villains, and criminals love to be able to tell their associates that they know a bent copper. They like to give the impression they can get things done."
He added: "But what people forget is that the criminal fraternity and the police in the city form a community, like a village, and people chat. You can't hide anything if someone has gone off the rails.
"People get out of their depth. It's ultimately very destructive."
From "exceptional officer" to villain
In more recent times Merseyside Police were again rocked by officers entering into pacts with organised criminals.
In 2020, PC Stephen Cloney, 41, was jailed after ACU detectives discovered he had been selling sensitive police intelligence to gangsters for several years.
Amongst a litany of offences, Cloney would tip off his criminal contacts about addresses where it was suspected cannabis or other drugs were being stashed - so they could plan to steal the illicit goods.
But although there was no evidence Cloney was involved in planning any raids - his tips led to shocking violence including a stabbing and a man having a gun thrust into his face.
Some familiar patterns emerged during court hearings into the case.
Wirral native Cloney had spent some of his early career serving in the Metropolitan Police in London - where he was described as an “exceptional” officer and was involved in responding to the 2005 Oval Tube terrorist attack.
According to David McLachlan, QC, who prosecuted the case: "This activity appears to have started in April 2015 which coincided with PC Cloney being moved out of the Dedicated Source Unit (DSU), leading him to become disillusioned with life as a police officer.
“It also coincided with him being in a poor financial position; the evidence shows that from April 2015 he received regular cash deposits into his account, totalling £8,055, and he began to live a cash-rich lifestyle."
Detectives uncovered a stunning list of corrupt activities spanning from 2015 to his arrest in 2019, which included:
- Sending messages to his alleged drug dealing cousins about a planned police raid on a relative's home, giving them chance to clear any illicit items
- Trying to find the "grass" in a high level drugs trafficking gang subject to a major police operation.
- Handing tip offs to gangs about suspected drug dens that resulted in an 81-year-old pensioner's home being burgled and another homeowner having a gun pointed in his face by masked men.
He was jailed for five years at Manchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to the relatively new offence of corrupt or improper exercise of police powers and privileges by a constable.
Judge Alan Conrad, QC, passing sentence, told Cloney: “One corrupt officer taints a great police force, and undermines public confidence in the police.
“Thereby undoing the great work that is done by the overwhelming majority of decent, hard-working and honest officers...
"The fact is you became bitter and resentful in your job and you became corrupt."
The inside man
In a similar case, PC Barry Parkinson was sacked and jailed for seven years for being the “inside man” in a plot to burgle cannabis farms.
The 46-year-old had used Merseyside police force’s computer system to access information about suspected cannabis crops and then passed on the intelligence to old friend Robert Sloan.
Alleged cocaine dealer Sloan, his pal David Gould and accomplice Shaun Blackburn intended use the tip offs to steal cannabis, before “selling it on and pocketing the cash”.
All four men were convicted of two conspiracies to commit burglary and to supply cannabis.
Parkinson also admitted two misconduct in public office charges.
In 2017, while serving his prison sentence, he was ordered to hand over £6,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act within three months or serve an extra three months behind bars.
During the trial Liverpool Crown Court heard that Parkinson had worked as a Field Intelligence Development Officer in South Liverpool until May 2014, when he moved to the force’s Major Crime Unit.
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