A YORK police officer collapsed in tears with her career in tatters after the Appeal Court upheld a jury's verdict that she passed confidential police information to her doorman boyfriend.

Clare Woodall, a police officer for nine years, had appealed against her conviction for misconduct in a public office, for which she received a 180-hour community punishment order at York Crown Court in April last year.

The 29-year-old agreed that she was in love with Paul Douglas - doorman at York's Gallery Nightclub - but denied giving him a police logbook, Lord Justice Scott Baker told the court.

She challenged the safety of her conviction on grounds that key evidence was wrongly withheld from the jury, but had her case rejected today by Lord Justice Scott Baker, sitting at London's Appeal Court.

The judge - sitting with Mr Justice Henriques and Judge Tom Crowther - said: "The conviction is safe and the appeal must be dismissed".

Woodall, of Bishopthorpe, left the courtroom in tears midway through the judgement, and was later seen slumped on a bench outside the courtroom being comforted by a friend.

Her counsel, Paul Greaney, said Woodall was in dire financial straits, having accumulated debts of £20,000 and being forced to remortgage her home.

Woodall had been suspended from duty since the matters "came to light", said Mr Greaney, and was now likely to face disciplinary proceedings after yesterday's decision.

Dismissal would be the "inevitable consequence" of today's ruling, said the barrister.

Woodall and Douglas began a relationship towards the end of 2000, although she claimed to be under the belief that he was an "undercover police officer".

The missing log contained personal details about the victim of a violent nightclub fracas in which Douglas was involved on December 26, 2000, which had got into Douglas's hands by the evening of December 27.

Although Woodall was linked to the log by fingerprint evidence, she denied having given Douglas the information.

She conceded that she may have touched it "inadvertently" while it was in Douglas's possession.

"It was the Crown case that she obtained it and gave it to him," said Lord Justice Scott Baker, adding: "She denied that."

Mr Greaney argued the jury's verdict was unsafe because the trial judge refused permission for the defence to call fingerprint evidence that might have reinforced her claims about accidental contact with the log book.

But Lord Justice Scott Baker said the jury already had comprehensive evidence about how her prints came to be on the log, while it was unclear whether the defence witness had the "necessary expertise".

He told the court: "There was a very small window of opportunity for this log to be obtained from the police station and be in Douglas' hands when it was. Woodall was ideally placed to obtain it.

"There is also evidence of extensive mobile telephone contact between Douglas and her within a short time of the assault having taken place."

Updated: 10:55 Tuesday, July 22, 2003