DISGRACED PC Sergio Henriques was yesterday fined £1,200 for accessing the records of women he was linked with and passing confidential information to a former girlfriend. But his defence counsel said that the miserable time Henriques had experienced in the force might have been to blame for two of the four offences.

Advocate Sarah Brehaut said her client had regularly suffered from racial abuse, with colleagues frequently making comments about the colour of his skin and his Hispanic background.

As well as that, she said, he had been suffering severe personal difficulties at the time of the 2006 offences.

He had been signed off work for a long period and returned only because one of his superiors had come to his house and ‘badgered’ him into it.

She said that returning to work still suffering from stress might have led him to commit the offences.

Henriques, 35, who has now left the force, was found guilty last month of three cases under the computer misuse law and admitted one count of disclosing information.

Henriques was convicted of accessing secure police files on 10 November and 23 November 2004.

He was also found guilty of doing the same on 14 June 2006, but this time he copied the information and presented it to a former partner.

This was an attempt to win her back after their relationship had recently ended.

But she handed the information he had given her back to the police.

Assistant-Magistrate Cherry McMillen said by law she could punish Henriques only with a fine.

She told him that his actions had severely damaged trust in the force.

‘When the island gives trust to a person to become a police officer, that trust is of the utmost importance.

‘The use of the police computer is absolutely confidential.

‘We want to know that each police officer protects that confidentiality. If not, our trust in the police would disappear.

‘Your actions for the most stupid of reasons to access a computer have knocked the trust we hold in our police.’

Miss McMillen accepted Henriques’ actions had been motivated by his personal life and had not been for financial gain.

‘Your actions in 2006 of giving information to someone close to you in order to convince them of something in your personal life will not only have deeply affected them, but will also have affected the person whose information you printed off.’

Advocate Brehaut referred to two similar cases in the UK where police officers who had also been charged under the computer misuse law to aid personal relationships had each been fined £100 and £150 respectively for each case.