A SENIOR civilian worker with Cleveland Police is suing his former employers – claiming he was the victim of harassment after being suspended amid allegations he was leaking information to the media.

Mike Hopkins claims there was a campaign to 'belittle me, humiliate me and force me to leave the organisation' in an attempt to slow down an investigation into senior officers and figures in 2011.

Mr Hopkins was the head of procurement for the force at the height of Operation Sacristy, a long-running investigation into allegations of corruption at the force that eventually resulted in the sacking of its Chief Constable Sean Price and his deputy Derek Bonnard.

Now more than six years later, Mr Hopkins is in court accusing his former bosses of a campaign of harassment instigated by the force's then-suspended Chief Constable and Ann Hall, the former assistant chief officer.

A civil hearing at Teesside Crown Court heard how Mr Hopkins was suspended from his job at Steria, where he had been transferred when the company was appointed to run he force's non-policing departments, just days after it came to light that he was passing on documents to detectives from North Yorkshire Police as part of Operation Sacristy – which he was requested to do.

The court heard how Mr Hopkins has been asked to search out a number of receipts for work carried out on behalf of the force that came to under £5,000 – which means the work didn't have to go out to tender – on May 5 in 2011.

Less than a week later he was called into the office and told he was being suspended from duty over concerns about leaks of sensitive information to the media.

When asked how he reacted to the news, Mr Hopkins said: "I felt that I had been singled out and targeted. I felt that the information was going back to Cleveland Police Authority. I was nervous about the chief constable, about Ann Hall, I had been snubbed by (Dave) McLuckie who was the police authority chairman at the time.

"Staff had raised concerns with me that offices could have been bugged and there was two occasions when there was a clicking noise when I answered the phone in my office."

The court heard how an investigation was carried out by Steria and Mr Hopkins was reinstated within a matter of weeks.

The start of the eight day hearing was delayed after it came to light that Cleveland Police had not released all relevant documents to the case.

Under cross examination from Cleveland Police's barrister, Iain Daniels, denied being the source of any leak of information to media in relation to Operation Sacristy.

When asked how he reacted when he was confronted with the prospect of his suspension, Mr Hopkins said: "I was in panic mode, I was concerned about what was in my office and what was on my computer - I had never been in this position before."

Mr Daniels asked the claimant what information he had been passing to North Yorkshire Police and the reason for doing so.

He replied: "I was told that I had to give them my full support from the Chief Constable and the management of Steria and that is what I did."

The hearing continues.