Ex-Met officer faces jail after admitting taking bribes while policing the West End

An ex-Metropolitan Police officer has admitted taking bribes including Hugo Boss clothes, Cristal champagne and free entry to nightclubs in a corrupt relationship with a West End security boss.

Lee Morrell, 39, who was a Police Constable in the force, was extradited from the US to face justice and pleaded guilty at Southwark crown court on Monday to two charges of bribery between 2012 and 2015.

According to documents filed in the US as Morrell faced extradition, the officer was caught by texts found on the phone of a security firm boss in 2015, and incriminating messages later recovered from Morrell’s own phone.

He had struck up a corrupt relationship with the security boss who oversaw arrangements at top nightclubs in London’s West End, and agreed to receive a series of benefits.

In one message, Morrell requested "eight bottles of Cristal, from yourself", and on another occasion he secured entry to the exclusive Members-Only Playboy Club.

The US court documents show that Morrell wrote to his contact: "Saw a top in Hugo Boss that I liked the other day, was wondering if you could help me out with it please".

In another message, he asked for a Hugo Boss suit, saying: "I seen a suit that I like but it's £579 that's a lot of money if it's too much let me know."

Morrell was dismissed from the Met in 2017, and has since started a new life in the US in Washington state with a woman he met online, including setting up his own furniture removals business.

On Monday, Morrell appeared in the dock wearing jeans and a pink shirt to plead guilty to two counts of bribery and not guilty to a third charge of bribery as well as a count of misconduct in public office.

Prosecutor Kelly Brocklehurst said the charges which he has admitted “represent the more serious end of the offending”, and he indicated the CPS will accept the pleas and the case will proceed to sentence.

Adam Kane KC, representing Morrell, said the former police officer married in 2018 to an American woman who is quadriplegic.

He said Morrell has pleaded guilty “in the knowledge of a custodial sentence”, and he will be relying on medical reports about his wife as well as character references at sentence.

Judge Christopher Hehir adjourned the case for a further hearing on September 10, when Morrell is expected to be sentenced. Morrell was remanded back into custody.

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