A KENT police officer who went on bootlegging trips for six years and supplied tobacco and cigarettes to colleagues has been jailed for six months.

Boyd Adams will also have to pay £117,000 under a confiscation order made by a judge.

The 55-year-old was a custody sergeant at Folkestone Police Station when he was making frequent trips across the Channel to obtain the tobacco products.

Judge Keith Simpson told Daniel Flahive, defending: “It is a rather serious indictment of his work colleagues that they should do such a thing, is it not? Those who are sworn to uphold the law, then wantonly indulge in illicit activities of this sort - the court is bound to take a very serious view whether he approached them or they approached him.”

It cast a shadow, he said, on all.

It emerged that Adams, who joined Kent Police in 1974, was a serving officer after he was stopped at the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles, Calais, in January 2003.

Judge Simpson said Adams “swiftly resigned” from the force, taking a £24,000 pension lump sum.

When Customs officers raided the officer's home, Herons Grove in Marsh Road, Hamstreet, near Ashford, they found a hoard of tobacco and cigarettes in a cupboard.

Adams claimed in court: “I just kept stockpiling it. I stopped buying tobacco in July 2002 because I simply wasn’t selling any. I probably sold dribs and drabs. Customs alleged I was buying 44 pouches a trip.”

Customs officers found a list of customers, including police officers. Many of them paid by cheque.

Adams said he was paying about £21 for a carton of 200 cigarettes and selling them for about £29. He admitted he “rather stupidly” sold them to colleagues. “The whole episode in my life doesn’t make sense,” he said.

He explained larger amounts going into his bank account as being from buying cars at auctions and selling them.

Adams, now of Torcross Grove, Calcot, Reading, Berkshire, admitted harbouring or dealing with goods at his former home and evading duty.

Thomas Allen, prosecuting, said the amount involved in the charges totalled £11,700. But during the confiscation proceedings he said there was evidence Adams made about 154 trips over a six-year period until his arrest and involved the evasion of almost £135,000.

Mr Flahive said Adams had pleaded guilty on a limited basis. “Before this happened he was an upstanding member of the community,” he said. “His loss of character since being convicted as caused him great personal humiliation. I know one says he has brought it upon himself.

“He has been all his working life in public service. He was well respected. He became involved in this because he had not appreciated the enormity of it. He was supplementing his income.

“He left the force in complete and utter disgrace. He has not only lost his character, he has lost a great deal more. He lost about £56,000 by leaving the force early. Also, his salary he was entitled to in the remaining years. He lost £60-65,000.

“He will lose everything in the world. He has lost his home and the respect of those in the community.”

Mr Flahive urged the court to impose a suspended sentence or community punishment on Adams.

But Judge Simpson said the duty evasion was regular and repeated. “One cannot close one’s eyes that it was a business being run,” he said.

He told Adams: “I am extremely troubled about the state of affairs that could exist in a police station, where you as a sergeant were supplying goods to other police officers as well as to others outside.

“I don’t see that the fact you were doing it merely twice a month but over a long period really helps the position. You were not doing it on a very large scale but the fact is you were a paid public servant who had the sworn duty of upholding the law and you were doing the exact opposite for personal gain.”

The judge added: “I am afraid with the utmost regret I fell obliged to pass a custodial sentence with immediate effect.”

He made the confiscation order after hearing that the former matrimonial home was valued at £295,000 and there was equity of £150,000. Adams’s ex-wife was entitled to half.

The judge said the £117,000 should include half of the pension lump sum and the £14,000 value of an endowment policy. Adams was given a year to pay.