A long-serving officer with the Manx constabulary stole a luxury watch during a police search, a jury was told on Monday.

Former constable Kevin Scott Williams, who had been a police officer for about 24 years and had been the force’s lead police search adviser for 14 years, is accused of stealing the Rolex watch valued at £6,750.

The watch was found, wrapped in two envelopes, in a black messenger bag found in Constable Williams’ office at police headquarters in September 2017, a jury at the Court of General Gaol Delivery was told.

Inquiries confirmed that the silver Rolex ’Oyster Perpetual Datejust 2’ watch belonged to a Mr Paul Bell.

On March 18 and 19, 2015, the force was involved in a significant joint operation, codenamed Braid, with the UK’s National Crime Agency and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

The court heard it was probably the biggest search operation the force had ever carried out and the defendant’s role had been facilitator and coordinator for all the searches.

During this operation a number of properties were searched, including a house on Manor Park in Onchan, the then home address of Mr Bell, and also a unit linked to him on the Middle Farm industrial estate in Braddan, the court heard.

During the search a large number - 93 in total - of high value watches of various brands were located and catalogued.

Prosecutor James Robinson told the jury of six men and one woman that the defendant was ’intimately’ involved in the search and he had ’free rein’ to come into the properties being searched, sometimes with other people and sometimes alone.

Mr Robinson said former Police Constable 187 Williams had significant knowledge of the parameters of the search and what could and could not be removed.

He told the jury: ’The prosecution say that the defendant had no valid reason to have the watch in his possession and therefore he must have stolen it.’

Given the ’absence of a credible and logical explanation’, this must have been what happened, Mr Robinson said in his opening address.

Mr Williams, aged 51, of Port-e-Chee Avenue, Douglas, denies the one count of theft. He resigned as a serving officer on February 5 this year.

His office at police headquarters had been searched on September 11, 2017 in relation to an unrelated matter, the jury heard.

Constable Williams also had an office at Willaston police station in his capacity as island representative for the Police Federation.

When interviewed after his arrest, he had insisted he had not stolen the watch.

He claimed he had found it in a prop bag at Willaston police station a week before it was found in his office.

He said he taken it to police headquarters with the intention of asking members of the search team about it.

The defendant suggested the watch might have been a fake placed in the training box put together by the police search advisers.

Giving evidence on the first day of the trial, Sergeant Barry Hand said he was ’very surprised’ to find the watch in the black messenger bag.

He explained the silver watch was inside a ’yellowy’ envelope which had been placed in turn inside a white envelope.

Sergeant Hand, who took over as lead police search adviser from Constable Williams, said it became apparent that a lot of police equipment was being stored at Willaston police station.

The right hand building was used by the Police Federation and the only person who had access was the defendant, he told the court.

He said it would have been the defendant who put items in the training boxes. These would contain such items as dummy improvised explosive devices, an imitation firearm, a knife and a fake hand grenade, he said.

Next to take the stand was Mr Bell, who told the court that over a period of 10 to 15 years he had purchased more than 100 high-value watches, either as presents for his family or as investments.

Mr Bell, who wasn’t at home when the search operation was carried out, told the jury that the watches were kept in a dressing area next to the bedroom and in a cupboard under the stairs.

The witness, who no longer lives at the same property in Manor Park, said the bedroom had been deadlocked because of the value of the watches there.

He denied having given the Rolex watch to the defendant, adding: ’I don’t know who he is.’

Many of the bulky boxes for the watches were kept at the storage unit at Middle Farm where paperwork for his recruitment and payroll business was also stored.

Mr Bell told the court his business is largely UK-based and he divides his time between the Isle of Man, Manchester and Marylebone.

Detective Inspector Robert Syme, who was a detective sergeant at the time of Operation Braid, said: ’It was probably the biggest search operation the constabulary has ever seen. I’ve never seen that amount of personnel in any search before.’

He said the warrants were quite specific in what items could be seized - including cash of £1,000 and upwards and bond certificates.

High value items like watches would be recorded and photographed but not seized.

The trial, due to last all week, continues.