Frank Partridge

A POLICE sergeant known as the “Sheriff of Soho” was jailed for seven years on Tuesday after being found guilty of taking backhander gifts in return for filing favourable reports for venues.

Frank Partridge, 50, had accepted money, gifts and hospitality – including gig tickets to an exclusive Elton John concert, exotic holidays and sex worker services.

He then told Westminster City Council’s licensing unit why clubs should get or keep a licence.

The former officer would downplay any concerns relating to a venue and in one case said a rape investigation relating to an incident in one nightspot had been concluded several months earlier than it had – apparently to dampen down any licence concerns.

In another case, the trial heard that a club boss had booked him a $7,000 holiday in Morocco after he was tasked with starting a licence review at their premises following reports of sexual assaults.

He had been responsible for keeping more than 3,000 bars and nightclubs in check across the West End but was accused of making inappropriate friendships with some of the owners.

At an earlier hearing he had pleaded guilty to three counts of bribery between February 2013 and June 2015. Then last week he was found guilty of another four counts of bribery after a three month trial at Southwark Crown Court and acquitted of one count.

Judge Christopher Hehir said there had been “a rapid descent into wholesale corruption, dishonesty and complete disregard of your obligations as a police officer.”

Mr Partridge joined the Met in May 1992 and worked in clubs and vice and gangs units before joining Westminster police licensing unit in early 2013.

He was initially dismissed in April 2016 for gross misconduct after using his MPS badge to travel first class on trains.

The criminal conviction will mean he will lose part of his pension, although he will keep his own contributions.

He has moved to Spain since leaving the Met.