AN Aberystwyth police officer unlawfully accessed information about the ex-partner of a woman he was in a relationship with, a court heard.

Michael Westbury, 55, of Aberystwyth, has been handed a suspended jail sentence.

Westbury used police computers to access information on the former partner of his girlfriend and then texted her to say ‘he didn’t like what he had seen’ a judge in Aberystwyth heard on Wednesday.

Westbury pleaded guilty to nine charges of misusing police computers and the unauthorised use of personal data.

He was handed a six-month jail sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.

Westbury, who has since retired from Dyfed-Powys Police, accessed the information at Aberystwyth Police Station between April and May last year.

Following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, he was charged with seven offences of accessing police computer systems without lawful purpose, and two offences of unauthorised disclosure of information.

His sentence was suspended after the district judge took into account his guilty pleas and an otherwise unblemished record during 24 years of service.