A POLICE officer has received a chief constable’s commendation for helping to bring a blackmailer to justice.

PC Lorene Haworth, of Cleveland Police, received the commendation from Chief Constable Iain Spittal for her work on the Sharon Mincher case.

Mincher, 46, from Hartlepool, a serial offender, was handed a two year suspended jail sentence at Teesside Crown Court after admitting blackmail and six offences of stalking in relation to an elderly, vulnerable man.

But the sentence was subsequently appealed and last September increased to five years imprisonment.

PC Haworth spent hours with the elderly victim, gaining his trust and getting him to disclose the full scale of the harassment he had been subjected to.

It emerged that over a 15 year period Mincher been demanding money from the man, who lived alone, threatening to report him to police for rape if he did not pay up.

Statements were also taken from a number of other victims who had also experienced the same demands and harassment from Mincher.

A force spokeswoman said: “As result of PC Haworth’s dedication, a woman who was targeting vulnerable elderly men, over many years, has been prosecuted and has been sentenced accordingly.

“Most importantly, the victim has stated that he no longer lives in fear.”