A trainee officer has been banned for life after passing police secrets to her drug dealer boyfriend.
Maryam Ilyas, a former West Yorkshire Police officer, accessed confidential data to inform her criminal boyfriend about an operation involving him.
She used police computer systems to search for details about him, his family and criminal associates between March and May 2025.
The former trainee officer, 20, resigned ahead of a disciplinary hearing this week but would have otherwise been sacked, the misconduct panel ruled.
Her behaviour was uncovered in July when officers arrested her boyfriend, named only as Mr J, and discovered phone messages between them. The messages included pictures of a “large amount” of money and conversations about drugs.
Ms Ilyas was also found to have disclosed information about a plain-clothes operation and shown him his profile on the force’s system.
Officer ‘unaware of criminal history’
The hearing heard that she failed to notify the force of their relationship when she was hired in June 2024, and in January this year she told investigators she was “unaware of his criminal history”.
However, Catherine Hankinson, the former deputy chief constable, said that the messages suggested the pair were in a relationship up until July 2025.
The criminal’s identity was not revealed at tribunal after it was ruled the man’s “welfare” would be “adversely affected” if he was to be named in the proceedings. It was not revealed what his previous convictions were for.
Panel chair 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.”
She added that Ms Ilyas’s behaviour was “repeated,” “sustained” and “intentional”.
Ms Ilyas admitted the allegations, including failing to declare the relationship on her vetting form. The hearing found her to have committed gross misconduct.
Owing to the ruling that she committed gross misconduct, Ms Ilyas is barred from future service. However, she told 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.”
