An Aintree police officer who played a part in a £77,000 drugs plot is now behind bars.

PC Andrew Bird, 34, is set to serve four years with two other Merseyside policemen after a plot to sell seized cannabis was intercepted.

Father-of-three Bird, of Whitewood Park, was assigned to Operation Hawk, a crackdown on drug dealing, along with his co-defendants Sgt

Darren Burns, 32, and PC Clive French, 33, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Kevin Donnelly told how police raided a house in Wavertree and found two cannabis farms, the drugs were set to be bagged up and taken to St Anne Street police station, the court heard, to be dumped in a skip and disposed of.

But instead, the court heard that PC Colin White, whose involvement in the conspiracy was cleared by a jury - took five stuffed bin-bags from the house in a white Transit van meeting Bird, French and Burns.

Mr Donnelly said the foursome then drove to Birds home where the heads of the plants were harvested.

Bird and Burns, of Ash Street, Southport, pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply Class B drugs.

French, of Lexton Drive, Southport, and Brennan were convicted. They denied the charges against them.

By David Raven