A FORMER Essex police officer is facing a possible jail sentence after a jury convicted him of forging a police warrant card.Richard Shakespeare, 44, of George Williams Way, Colchester, was found guilty of the offence at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday .

A FORMER Essex police officer is facing a possible jail sentence after a jury convicted him of forging a police warrant card.

Richard Shakespeare, 44, of George Williams Way, Colchester, was found guilty of the offence at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday .

After the jury convicted him of one charge of forgery, the judge postponed sentencing to March 10 for a psychiatric report at the request of defence barrister Philip Matthews.

The court heard that Williams was a constable in Essex Police until last summer.

His former girlfriend, Rachel Dunn, was last year convicted of using a fake police warrant card to travel free on the trains between Colchester and London, where she worked.

She was prosecuted and convicted of obtaining services - the free rail travel - by deception and impersonating a police officer. She was given a conditional discharge by magistrates.

She gave evidence at her ex-boyfriend's trial and supported his assertion, when he gave evidence, that he knew nothing about her criminal use of the fake card.

She said that "on and off" over a period of three weeks, she had used the card for free travel.

Shakespeare said the false warrant card had been produced for murder mystery weekends which he had organised with another person.

A computer was used to combine the information from his genuine police warrant card and his library card.

The jury took just over three hours yesterday to find him guilty of the forgery charge.

Judge John Devaux, indicating that a jail sentence was not ruled out, told Shakespeare: "For a police officer, the offence for which you have been convicted is a serious one".