By Grâçia Ada Obi
A twisted trainee cop has been kicked off a police force and banned from serving for life after she was passed information to her drug dealer boyfriend.
Maryam Ilyas gained access to West Yorkshire Police computers while training as an officer with the service, seeking confidential information concerning her boyfriend, the service said. After searching systems for details about the unnamed man on three occasions between March and May 2025, the 20-year-old then informed her lover that he was the target of an ongoing plain clothes criminal operation.
Police didn’t discover her links to the unnamed drug dealer until months following her initial breach in June, when it was discovered the two had messaged one another about money and drugs.
The tribunal heard the criminal had sent pictures showing a “large amount of money” to the former trainee, and that the two had discussed drug dealing. She was found to have passed him confidential information and images about the police operation, and shown him his profile on the force’s systems.
A disciplinary hearing against Ilyas was told she had failed to notify the service of her relationship with the man following her recruitment in 2024, telling investigators in January she was “unaware of his criminal history”.
But she was found by Catherine Hankinson, West Yorkshire’s deputy chief constable, that messages between the pair demonstrated an “existing relationship”.
That relationship continued until July 2025, with a panel finding that it, while she had resigned before the hearing concluded, their links would have seen her fired from the service.
Deputy chief constable Hankinson said in a statement that the officer’s conduct was “repeated”, “sustained” and “intentional”, adding it was a “disservice to the public and to her colleagues”.
She 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.” Ilyas was ultimately found to have committed gross misconduct.
But she initially denied any wrongdoing in the case, telling The Sun she was a “student officer” who was new to the job. She said: “I was a student officer. I was really new to all this and I feel like I was expected to know everything straight away.”
Ilyas later admitted the allegations, which included failing to declare the relationship with the dealer on her police vetting form, and was banned from policing for life.
