A police detective was sacked yesterday for taking a £1,000 bribe to halt an investigation.
Bosses ruled that Det Con Mark Hopkins, in jail for perverting justice, committed gross misconduct.
The corrupt officer, 49, was paid for persuading a beaten-up boy to drop an allegation of assault.
He was sentenced to four years last month after his ex-wife told a court she saw him hiding banknotes in a kitchen cupboard.
Hopkins served for 18 years with South Wales Police but was dismissed without notice for bringing the force into disrepute.
Dep Ch Con Richard Lewis said: “We expect our officers to act with honesty, not to engage in discreditable conduct.
“DC Hopkins has destroyed the trust that we and the public had in him. His criminal offence strikes at the heart of policing.”
The shamed officer, of Ton Pentre in South Wales, pleaded not guilty at his trial but the judge told him he was “motivated by greed”.
Cardiff crown court heard that ex-wife Tina Burton kept his secret for seven years but gave him up to police during their bitter 2015 split.
