A YORK police officer who "betrayed" her force for the sake of an underworld character today escaped a jail term for misconduct.

But PC Clare Woodall will lose her £25,000-a-year job as a police dog handler and the career that was her childhood dream, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Judge Trevor Kent Jones told her that by handing over confidential information to her then boyfriend, "underworld character" Paul Douglas, she had "shown a complete lack of judgement and a lack of the proper ethical code under which a police constable should act".

She had surreptitiously used a police computer to get details of witnesses against Douglas in a serious nightclub assault case and pass them on to him, knowing what he had done.

Douglas, formerly of Harrogate, was later jailed for two years for assault.

The judge said: "I take the view in doing this, you behaved completely foolishly within your utterly misguided devotion for Douglas at that time, and he clearly has somehow the power and authority to captivate young women."

He added: "What you did here, to betray your service, to lie extensively through three interviews (with detectives) and to lie on oath in court will, I have no doubt, lead to your dismissal from the force."

He ordered Woodall, 28, of Bishopthorpe, to do 180 hours' community punishment and pay £1,000 prosecution costs.

Woodall and Douglas were acquitted last month of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, but Woodall was convicted of the lesser charge of misconduct as a police officer.

Judge Kent Jones said that had she been convicted of conspiring with Douglas he would have jailed her.

Her barrister, Paul Greaney, said her saddest moment would come when she lost her police job. She had found a new job as a dog handler.

The investigation and court case had affected her health.

The judge told Woodall: "You got embroiled with a completely unsavoury character.

She had known the details of what Douglas had done at the nightclub when she passed on names and addresses of witnesses to him.

North Yorkshire Police declined to comment on her future.

Spokesman Tony Lidgate said: "All we can say is we will look at it when we get the details from the court."

Updated: 16:11 Monday, April 22, 2002