Bankside ice cream trial: police officer cleared

PC Keenan pictured in 2003 when he was a member of the award-winning Bankside Street Action Team

39-year-old Keenan was accused of running a lucrative business on the Bankside riverside walkway with James McCall, 42, of Thamesmead, for more than three years.

Anthony Whittaker, a market inspector, and Leslie Armstrong, a street-trading manager, each denied one count of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by taking steps to thwart the prosecution of illegal traders.

Whittaker and Armstrong were also cleared at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court in Westminster.

McCall, who gave evidence for the prosecution after admitting conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and conspiracy to corrupt an officer of a public body, is awaiting sentence.