Brit-Sikh cop in the dock for blackmailing sex offenders

London, Dec 9 (ANI): A British Sikh policeman tried to blackmail known sex offenders by gleaning information from a police database and threatening to tell their families and employers.

Amerdeep Johal, 29, planned to make more than 2 million pound by using confidential details to blackmail registered sex offenders and sell information to wealthy criminals, a court heard on Monday.

The Telegraph reported that he hoped to make 419,000 pound in one month last year by sending menacing letters to targets near his home in Redbridge, Essex.

He was said to have used the Metropolitan Police's CRIMINT intelligence system to track down the addresses of criminals and suspected criminals.

Johal, using confidential information about a drugs operation, also posed as a Customs officer offering to sell 600,000 pound of seized cocaine, the court heard.

On his arrest letters found on his laptop showed he wanted 732,000 pound in 50-pound notes from another target and had other letters prepared asking for up to 600,000, pound a jury heard.

Johal was working as a constable at West End Central police station in July last year, using the CRIMINT system to get informaton for frontline officers, but he abused his positon to use the Metropolitan Police computer to compile a list of targets that he could extort money from, it was said.

He allegedly told one planned victim that he wanted enough money to leave London, pay off his mortgage and never work again, The Times reported.

He asked his targets to reply by the end of the month and left a mobile number, the telephone for which was found on him when he was arrested, the court was told.

Johal, formerly an executive on the Metropolitan Police Sikh Association, denies 12 counts of blackmail and one of misconduct in a public office.

Johal was arresed after some of the recipients of the letters went to the police and he was the subject of an undercover operation. (ANI)