First fingerprint photo conviction ‘opens floodgates’

♦ Britain’s first Whatsapp fingerprint conviction has led to a flood of new cases, police have revealed, after a criminal was caught through a photograph of his hand holding drugs.

South Wales Police used pioneering techniques to enhance a photograph of three fingers holding ecstasy tablets, which was found on a mobile phone after an arrest linked to a drugdealing investigation in Bridgend.

Dave Thomas, forensics operations manager at the Scientific Support Unit, described the use of the technique, which helped to secure 11 convictions, as “groundbreaking”.

It is thought to be the first conviction in the UK from fingerprints taken from a photograph.

“It has now opened the floodgates,” he told the BBC.

The image allowed fingerprint experts to identify Elliott Morris, who had sent the photograph to potential customers in Bridgend. He was sentenced to eight and half years for conspiracy to supply cannabis, along with his father Darren and mother Dominique.