A trainee police officer has been permanently banned from the profession after using work computers to pass information to her boyfriend while he was being investigated.
Maryam Ilyas, 20, a former West Yorkshire Police officer, ‘accessed and shared police data inappropriately’ with her drug dealer boyfriend, a disciplinary hearing found.
She used police computers to search for details about him on three occasions between March and May 2025.
Ms Ilyas resigned before her misconduct hearing, which ruled that she would have been sacked if she had stayed on the force.
Her links to the man, named only as Mr J, were identified when he was arrested in June.
Sign up for all of the latest stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
Officers found messages between the pair – including pictures of money and conversations about drugs.
But Ms Ilyas denied any wrongdoing, telling The Sun: ‘I was a student officer.
‘I was really new to all this and I feel like I was expected to know everything straight away.’
The disciplinary panel heard that Ms Ilyas did not tell the force about their relationship when she was recruited in June 2024, and in January, she told investigators she was ‘unaware of his criminal history’.
Catherine Hankinson, the force’s former deputy chief constable, ruled that messages indicated an ‘existing relationship’ up to July 2025, saying the officer’s conduct had been ‘repeated’, ‘sustained’ and ‘intentional’.
Ms Hankinson said: ‘The public rightly expect police officers to act with honesty and integrity.
‘The vast majority of officers in West Yorkshire Police do uphold those high standards.
‘The conduct of the former officer does a disservice to the public and to her colleagues.’
Ms Ilyas admitted the allegations which included failing to declare the relationship on her vetting form.
She was found to have committed gross misconduct.
Detective chief superintendent Tanya Wilkins, of West Yorkshire Police’s Professional Standards Directorate, said: ‘We make it very clear to all police officers, staff and volunteers that they must declare any personal contact with notifiable associations including criminals.
‘This officer blatantly ignored that order. She also accessed and shared police data inappropriately and then breached the standards of honesty and integrity by lying about it.
‘This kind of behaviour discredits the police service and undermines public confidence in it.
‘A panel has now determined that her actions amount to Gross Misconduct and this officer would have been dismissed had she not already resigned.
‘She will be added to the College of Policing’s Barred List preventing her from gaining further employment in policing nationally.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.