A former undercover police officer who says posing as a drug dealer led to his own heroin addiction has won the right to sue his Greater Manchester Police for compensation.

Robert Carroll, 44, from Holmfirth, Huddersfield, took on a false identity in a police operation to trap drug dealers in Manchester.

But he says he got the taste for heroin after carrying packages of the drug in his mouth - known as “kiting” - in a bid to make his persona more believable.

And, on a police training day, Mr Carroll claims he was exposed to heroin fumes during a demonstration of ‘chasing the dragon’.

Man injecting drugs into arm
Man injecting drugs into arm

By 2013, he was so hopelessly addicted to the drug that he swapped his police baton and CS gas spray for heroin.

In November that year, he admitted theft and misconduct in public office and was jailed for 14 months, London’s Appeal Court heard today.

He was sacked from from the force, but is now suing for substantial damages, claiming Greater Manchester Police were responsible for his addiction.

The Chief Constable’s lawyers argued that he had left it too late make a claim, but three senior judges have now opened the way for him to fight his case in court.

The Master of the Rolls, Sir Terence Etherton, said Mr Carroll was engaged in an operation - codenamed “Bluebeard” - to crack down on drug dealers.

He took on the “Lee Taylor” alias and, in 2009, was launched into the thick of the seedy world of drug addicts and dealers on the estate.

His lawyers say that mimicking real dealers by “kiting” heroin in his mouth meant he ingested small quantities of the drug.

“He felt strange and unwell after doing so” and was also exposed to addicts smoking heroin.

In May 2009, he was sent on a training day to Sedgeley Hall, during which the doors and windows were kept closed.

As officers handled a “large block of heroin”, Mr Carroll wiped heroin dust onto his trousers.

Each student was given a piece of aluminium foil, on which the drug was burned and Mr Carroll says he couldn’t help inhaling the vapour.

Heroin smoke “was in the atmosphere of the room generally”, he claims.

Lifeline Kirklees, 12, Station Street, Huddersfield.
Lifeline Kirklees, 12, Station Street, Huddersfield.

He left undercover work in November 2009, and returned to normal duties, but his lawyers say the damage was already done.

He sought help with his addiction from Lifeline Kirklees but, by 2012, he was suffering from anxiety and depression.

His criminal convictions followed in November 2013 after he “swapped his baton and his CS gas for drugs,” said the judge.

Mr Carroll’s lawyers accepted that he had lodged his compensation claim outside the three-year legal time limit that applies to such cases.

But Sir Terence today agreed with them that his case should nevertheless go forward to a full trial.

Greater Manchester Police described Mr Carroll’s case as “weak”, but the judge said its strength could not be judged without hearing the evidence.

“It cannot be said that the claim is so weak or inherently implausible that it could be struck out or dismissed without a hearing”, he ruled.

And if Mr Carroll’s claim succeeds “he will have suffered significant loss and damage” as a result of force’s negligence.

Sir Terence, sitting with Lord Justice Hickinbottom and Mr Justice Turner, dismissed the chief constable’s appeal.

Mr Carroll’s damages claim will now go ahead to a full hearing, a date for which has yet to be set.