Detective stole more than £85,000 from police force

A former police detective who stole more than £85,000 from her own force while working in a team that investigated high-level drugs gangs has been jailed.

Acting as the exhibits officer and one of only a small number of people with access to a safe that contained hundreds of thousands of pounds, Michelle Kirsty Reason began siphoning off cash in January 2022, Derbyshire Police said.

According to the force, the 54-year-old spent the money - which had been seized from criminals - on a car, a holiday, and tickets to events.

On Monday, Reason pleaded guilty to theft and misconduct in public office and was jailed for four years and two months at Mansfield Magistrates' and County Court.

Detectives said Reason, of Church Lane in Buxton, was a police exhibits officer based in Ripley.

From about January 2022, the force said Reason began siphoning cash after she dealt with a large cash seizure in the region of £350,000.

She initially stole £15,000 and told officers that, once she found that nobody had noticed, began taking money on a regular basis until she left the force in December 2025.

However, officers then began to review the stored exhibits ahead of an upcoming court case, and began to question where the cash had gone.

Knowing she had been caught out, Reason went to St Mary's Wharf police station to confess to taking the cash.

She gave a full account of the money that had been taken, even bringing with her the empty evidence bags that cash had been seized in, police said.

At the crown court hearing in Mansfield, Reason admitted taking £87,174.05, along with €1,620 and £114 worth of Albanian lek.

Temporary Deputy Chief Constable, Michelle Shooter, said: "Michelle Reason was placed in a position of trust as a detective constable.

"She broke the trust that we as a force put in her, and broke the trust that the public puts in officers to conduct themselves in a right and proper way.

"Her actions are a disgrace. Individuals who are willing to act in such a way have no place in policing and we will do all we can to root them out and bring them to justice."

A further hearing to discuss the case, under the Proceeds of Crime Act, has been listed for 9 April.

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