Jason Gilbert and Mandy Mills of Camborne Police Station honoured for their long service

A CAMBORNE police dog handler who has helped recover nearly £70,000 worth of drugs and cash during his career has been recognised.

PC Jason Gilbert was one of the 16 officers and staff from Devon and Cornwall Police who were honoured for their long service and good conduct at a special ceremony held in Saltash last month.

Jason joined the force in 1992 and was initially posted to Exeter on patrol.

He moved to Newquay station in January 1994 and five years later he became a trainee detective.

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In January 2001 Jason became a fully qualified CID officer and was based at Bodmin.

But he always wanted to become a dog handler and in March 2004 Jason fulfilled his career ambition and started on the police dog initial course with his dog Matrix.

In November 2005 when he moved to Camborne he was given another police dog to handle, drugs search dog Fidget with whom he has had numerous good finds including £17k worth of heroin and cannabis in a door panel of a previously searched vehicle, £10k of cash in a bag hidden under carpet/floorboards of a child's bedroom and £40k of cocaine at Plymouth docks while working with the UK Border Agency.

Camborne detention officer Mandy Mills, who joined the constabulary in Camborne as a typist in April 1990 has also been recognised.

Since then she has held many positions including an accident records clerk at Camborne, station administrator, enquiry officer and tape summariser at Redruth station and in 2007 Mandy moved to the custody team at Camborne as a detention officer.

Mandy has been described by her colleagues as a well-respected member of the custody unit and criminal justice team who is not afraid of getting involved in some of the team's scarier moments.

Mandy also has the gift of talking to detainees at their own level, which has helped to keep them calm and compliant.

In custody she has taken on the role of a shoeprint image capture and retrieval footwear impressions liaising and driving up the number of images the unit takes.

A spokesman for the force said: "We are proud of Mandy and her ideas and hardworking ethics and we hope she remains a glowing member of our team for many more years."

All the officers and staff members were recognised by chief constable Shaun Sawyer and Colonel Edward Bolitho OBE, Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall.