A former police officer swapped her uniform for business wear — and now she has landed a top job as a compliance officer with an investment firm.

Ex-Sergeant Cheryl Watts has been appointed group compliance officer at LOM.

But Ms Watts, who was a police officer for 14 years, said she had always seen herself as a police officer — until she did a course in fraud and financial crime and the instructor said in-depth courses were available if any of them wanted to take their studies further.

Ms Watts added: “That was when money laundering was really coming to the fore.

“It was a natural transition, to be honest. Although I don’t act as the police officer of the organisation, it’s very similar.

“Instead of making the public comply with the law, we make sure our company does.”

Ms Watts, latterly a police plain-clothes officer working in intelligence, crime, drug and fraud investigations, said she gained her qualification in compliance within a few years of her original police course.

She added: “I thought I would test the waters and see what happened. I never saw myself leaving the police — I was in it to stay.”

But when she was offered a compliance officer’s post with the Colonial Insurance Group, she spoke to senior officers who advised her to give it a try and come back to the police if she did not enjoy it.

Ms Watts said: “My former job was good and it was a good starting point. This post offered a more senior role in a completely different field. I was in insurance and now I’m in investment.

“The basics are the same — you just have to learn the specifics of the particular industry.”

Ms Watts has now attained a BSc with honours in management with compliance from the University of Manchester, an international diploma in compliance, and a diploma in financial-crime prevention from the International Compliance Association, and a certified anti-money laundering specialist designation from the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists.

Scott Hill, managing director of the LOM Group said: “Cheryl is a consummate professional and we are glad to have her join our senior management team.”

Ms Watts added: “Compliance is definitely a growing field with all the regulatory things there are now — and the good thing is you can start with distance learning.

“It’s not only looking at financial crime — that’s only one aspect of it.

“And compliance officers, depending on the size of the organisation they work for, can go into one particular department and specialise while in smaller firms you almost have to be a jack of all trades because you’re involved in all of it.”