Policewoman jailed for seizing CCTV footage to be used as 'tool to blackmail' Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard

A corrupt policewoman has been jailed for 22 months after seizing CCTV footage of a street bust-up to be used as a 'tool to blackmail' Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard.

Helen Jones, 32, a former Pc with Merseyside Police, obtained the footage by 'flashing her warrant card' to the manageress of a bank. 

The incident involved friends of Gerrard, the then-England captain, becoming involved in a row with other men at a bar near his home in Formby, Merseyside, which spilled out on to the street and was caught on the CCTV cameras of a nearby bank.

Local businessman Paul Lloyd, 35, claimed Gerrard 'threw the first punch' but, at an earlier hearing, prosecutors said the Liverpool midfielder was acting as a peacemaker on the evening of August 4 2013.

Jones, formerly of Formby, now living in Chatham, Kent, did not deny improperly using her status as a police officer to get the CCTV and admitted misconduct in a public office but claimed she was doing a favour for a friend.

But during a three-day hearing, known as a trial of issue last November, Judge Stuart Baker said he found her account 'wholly implausible', ruling Jones acted for 'base motives' and described her as a 'practised and persistent liar'.

He said the CCTV was secured to use it 'possibly as a lever to cause Mr Gerrard to pay money to suppress it or, at the very least, to use it in a away which would potentially cause embarrassment, as has in fact occurred'.

Jailing her today Judge Baker told the defendant: 'This was deliberate and calculated misconduct in a public office.'