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A former Warwickshire Police officer who admitted misusing police systems has been given a community order.

Norman Stephens continued to contact a colleague when an affair ended, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

She reported this to a supervisor who initiated an investigation and it was found he had accessed systems to search colleagues' personal data.

Stephens, 47, was suspended as a detective constable in the force's child exploitation team, police said.

The former officer, of Hatton Park, Warwick, illegally used Warwickshire Police's incident management, intelligence and number plate recognition systems in May and June last year.

Investigators from its professional standards department proved he had accessed information on the systems without a legitimate policing purpose, the force said.

He was sentenced to a 12-month community order and ordered to do 150 hours' unpaid work and pay £270 in costs at Leamington Spa Magistrates' Court.

Stephens pleaded guilty on Wednesday to four counts of causing a computer to perform a function to secure or enable unauthorised access to a program or data.

He resigned from the force in November and would be subject to internal proceedings, Warwickshire Police said.

Assistant Chief Constable Alex Franklin-Smith said: "We carry out regular checks to ensure officers and staff accessing information on force systems have a legitimate policing purpose for doing so and where they don't, we take robust action.

"Stephens' behaviour fell well below what we expect from our officers and staff."

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