STAFF at Aviva had enough to cope with as rumours circulated of more big job cuts planned – then one of their own started blaming his workmates for his £1.4 million crimes.

For years, insurance manager John Taylor had stolen hundreds of pounds from his employers, then known as Norwich Union, while his best mate, PC Stephen Spellacy, a cocaine addict, laundered the money via krugerands and Rolex watches into plastic bags stuffed full of notes. They kept mistresses in London and lived the good life in expensive hotels, going to big boxing matches.

During those years, Norwich Union announced big job cuts. Then, in the autumn of 2007, word started going around that hundreds more could get the chop at the Monks Cross offices where Taylor managed international funds.

In November 2007, facing the prospect of being moved from the department where he had successfully stolen more than £300,000, Taylor went for the big one. He moved £1.1 million in one enormous transfer – the biggest mistake of his life. It set off the alarm bells and the company called in police, whose first port of call was Taylor. Detectives knew that as head of the department where the dodgy transfer had occurred he must have known about it or he should have known. He responded by pushing the blame on to many of his colleagues.

Fearing that staff would clam up to protect their jobs, the police won assurances from Aviva that unless employees confessed to something criminal, they would not face internal sanctions or consequences. With their help, the two-man team of Det Chief Inspector Adam Harland and financial investigator Mike Sankey were able to expose the lies and get to the truth. Both won judge’s commendations.

Together with Det Con Nicky Hancock, they were to do the bulk of the police work in what was about to become a massive case covering years and involving more than a dozen criminals. In all, more than 50 police staff from three forces including a core team of 12 from North Yorkshire Police worked on the case, taking more than 250 witness statements, 74 taped interviews, more than 700 documents and 800 exhibits.

Taylor had been with the firm for years. What else had he done? Answering that was an enormous task which would have taken North Yorkshire Police, unfamiliar with insurance and international financial procedures, years and endless unavailable manpower. Aviva, alarmed by the exposed breach in their internal security, did the investigation themselves in a fraction of the time and turned up 13 other thefts, totalling nearly £350,000.

By August, police were ready to charge Taylor. They knew how the money had left Aviva, but they didn’t know why, and they didn’t know how Taylor had got his hands on the money, because it had not gone to accounts he controlled. They had two vital clues; a holiday photo and a first-class rail ticket to London.

Following up the London lead led police to unearth Taylor’s high-spending excursions to the capital, with his then- unknown best friend, including a trip to a prestige Thai boxing bout.

“It was clearly a boys’ trip out. It became clear both of them had been running escorts down in London”. The holiday snap showed Taylor and his wife on holiday in Thailand with Pocklington PC Stephen Spellacy and the policeman’s wife. “You would expect that you were dealing with a serious criminal,” said Det Chief Insp Harland. “You would never expect it to be an ordinary policeman. That was a surprise.”

The men got to know each other because their wives worked together. Some two years after they first met, the two men turned to crime.

The East Riding policeman was out when York officers called at his home. Within days, Taylor fled to Minorca.

“It was not a coincidence that Taylor disappeared after the visit to the Spellacy house,” said Det Chief Insp Harland.

Spellacy, who was on extended sick leave, was in next time police called at his marital home.

“He never expressed any surprise when I told him his best friend was under investigation for theft of £1.1 million,” said the detective.

There was a nice BMW on the drive and Spellacy said he was about to cut the hedge. But 15 minutes after police left, so did he. He too disappeared. Even Humberside Police did not know where he was. Weeks later, North Yorkshire officers tracked him down to the Leeds flat of his lap-dancing mistress, who worked at Bohemia in York.

He unsuccessfully pretended to be out when police came knocking and he could not explain the illegal gun and ammunition they found there. After that, there was no way police would let him get away again. He was taken to a cell in Fulford Road Police Station and within hours handed in his resignation to Humberside Police. He was charged with large-scale money laundering and firearms offences and the Crown Prosecution Service persuaded York magistrates that, despite his police background, he should be remanded in custody. He has not been free since. He was the second man to be charged. Taylor had thought better of a life on the run and voluntarily come back to England to be arrested on the tarmac of Leeds Bradford Airport. He too has not been free since.

All the police had to do then was to track down the numerous smaller fry who had helped split up the £1.1 million and launder it through their bank accounts. Again, paperwork provided the clue. Taylor had first tried to transfer the £1.1 million to an account controlled by a West Yorkshire man called Peter Harrington. Then, when that failed, he tried an account controlled by an associate of his, a conman who cannot be named for legal reasons. Both were tracked down and sentenced alongside Taylor and Spellacy. By checking transfers from Harrington and the conman’s accounts, detectives tracked down the rest of the network.