Former Merseyside police officer Daniel Hughes has received a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after unlawfully using police computer systems to access sensitive information. The case matters because it concerns an officer abusing access to confidential data while maintaining undisclosed relationships with people connected to serious organised crime, undermining public trust and police integrity.

Hughes, 40, carried out repeated unauthorised searches between 2016 and 2019, including intelligence on firearms and drugs cases, and later shared investigation details with others, according to prosecutors. A jury convicted him in June 2026 of eight Computer Misuse Act offences and three Data Protection Act offences; he was dismissed from Merseyside Police in July after being suspended since his 2022 arrest. The judge said there was no finding that Hughes profited or passed information directly to criminal enterprises, but criticised his inappropriate friendships and failure to disclose them.