A POLICE sergeant who abandoned a colleague on a 999 call so he could visit prostitutes has been spared jail.

Karl Cliff pestered vice girls so much that one of them finally reported him to his bosses at Merseyside Police.

Cliff, 42, walked free from Liverpool Crown Court after being given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. He had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to misconduct while in public office.

Cliff, an officer for 17 years, was arrested by colleagues in the early hours of August 7 last year. He was caught with a prostitute in his squad car, which he had parked behind a B&Q store.

Graham Pickavance, prosecuting, said Cliff once took a squad car, claiming he was going out on police business, but when he returned he had clocked up 170 miles driving around talking to vice girls.

Cliff, from Windsor Drive, Flint, North Wales, was caught after Merseyside Police launched a surveillance operation.

Audio and visual bugs in his car picked up conversations - not divulged in court - between the disgraced officer and the women.

In early August, he lied about his location when asked to help an officer attending a break-in where it was believed the burglars were still present.

Later that night, Cliff was seen talking with several different prostitutes. And on one occasion he tried to speed away from officers when in his own Renault Megane car with a prostitute.