A FORMER Warrington police officer ignored a call to a burglary in the town while he was buying cocaine, a court heard.

The jury at Manchester Crown Court was told on Monday detective constable John Griffiths, who worked for Cheshire CID and was based at Warrington Police Station, was a drug addict who was regularly texting and calling an Albanian drug dealer.

Richard Vardon, prosecuting, said the defendant, from Chorlton, was later caught ‘red-handed’ on January 18 during an exchange with the drug dealer Bledi Malecaj.

He said: “At the time he was a serving police officer he was also a regular user of cocaine.

“He was deliberately flouting the law and his selfish set of priorities meant the interests of the public were subordinate to his own.”

He added there had been a series of calls between him and the drug dealer between 2.23pm and 2.48pm on December 26 last year.

At 2.46pm the police officer was asked to attend a burglary in Warrington but Griffiths said he was ‘commited to another enquiry’ and would attend within an hour.

Police radio records found he was in the Black Friars area of Manchester at that time.

On January 18, the defendant was not on duty but went back to the same area of Manchester to meet his dealer.

Mr Vardon said he thought the ‘pally’ tone of the text messages to a criminal drug dealer would ‘shock’ members of the jury.

It read: “Mate it’s my birthday. I want to meet you but last time it was rubbish. Is it rock this time? I will get a few if it’s good.”

The pair were arrested but Griffiths declined to comment during police interview.

Griffiths, who had been a police officer for eight years, denies the charges.

The trial continues.