Policeman arrested over payments to officials (From This Is Wiltshire)

A SERVING Wiltshire police officer has been arrested by detectives investigating illegal payments to public officials.

The 32-year-old man was arrested at this county home at 6am yesterday as part of the Metropolitan Police Service Operation Elveden enquiry.

Two journalists, one aged 51 from Bristol and another aged 32 from south east London, were also held, taking to the total arrested to 50 in the wide-ranging probe, which is running in tandem with the phone hacking investigation Operation Weeting.

In a statement Wiltshire Police said: “Officers from the Operation Elveden made three arrests on Wednesday. Operation Elveden is the investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police and public officials.

“It is being supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and is running in conjunction with Operation Weeting, the MPS inquiry into the phone-hacking of voicemail boxes.

“A serving Wiltshire Police officer was arrested at his home in Wiltshire on suspicion of misconduct in a public office, contrary to common law and suspicion of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977.

“The arrests are the result of information provided to police by News Corporation’s Management Standards Committee.

“They relate to suspected payments to a public official and suspected disclosure of confidential information by an officer and are not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately.”