West Yorkshire police inspector found with £700,000 of illegal drugs at home, court hears

A police inspector responsible for disposing of drugs seized from criminals was found with £700,000 ($862,000) worth of heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis at his home, a court has heard.

Keith Boots, 55, a police inspector for more than 10 years and an officer for more than 20 years, is accused of stealing the drugs to supply to others while working for West Yorkshire Police.

When colleagues raided his home in Eccleshill, Bradford, they found the huge stash of illegal drugs, including 11kg of cocaine in his washing machine, a jury at Leeds Crown Court was told.

Prosecutors said his home resembled "a warehouse of controlled drugs".

"What was found on the ground floor would have kept a 1970s rock star, as well as his band, entertained for weeks," Paul Greaney QC, prosecuting, said.

The court was told the stash was worth an estimated £700,000, the Guardian reported.

"He was stealing and storing drugs so that they could then be supplied unlawfully to others," the BBC reported Greaney telling the court.

"In other words, the Boots operation did not just involve the theft of drugs that had been removed from the streets by the police, it also involved putting them back on to those same streets and the person principally responsible was Keith Boots, a police inspector."

Greaney said Boots' home was raided in December 2014 after a colleague noticed cocaine missing from Trafalgar House police station in Bradford, where Boots had been working.

The court heard ammunition was also found at his home during the raid.

Boots went on trial on Wednesday (18 January) with his son Ashley Boots and a third defendant, Ian Mitchell.

He denies theft, possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply, possessing ammunition, conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Ashley Boots, 29, of Weatherhouse Terrace, Halifax, denies possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply, possessing ammunition, conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Ian Mitchell, 27, of no fixed address, denies conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The trial continues.