A Winnipeg police officer used a man he met at a suicide call to sell stolen jewelery, then pocketed thousands of dollars, court heard Tuesday.

The City of Winnipeg also had to pay an accused drug dealer $33,000 because they could not locate the necklace that was taken during a search of a hotel and sold in 2013.

Bradley Laing was sentenced for possessing necklaces stolen by Winnipeg police officer Trent Milan. (Facebook) The details were revealed at a sentencing hearing for Bradley Laing, 30, who pleaded guilty to possessing property obtained by crime. Specifically, two stolen necklaces he said he got from Winnipeg Police Constable Trent Milan.

Court heard Milan took one necklace from a locked drawer at the Public Safety Building and stole the other from a home during a drug investigation.

Milan was charged Sept. 16 with 34 offences including breach of trust, drug trafficking and multiple weapons offences. He died after crashing his vehicle into a gravel truck in October.

Laing was charged this past September during an internal police investigation into Milan.

Court heard Milan befriended Laing in 2003, when he was just 17 years old. Milan was one of the responding officers called to the teen's home after he found his twin brother hanging in the basement.

Milan supplied drugs to Laing, who struggled with addiction since his brother's death. The court heard Milan later asked Laing to sell stolen goods and paid him $3,500 for two transactions.

Defence lawyer Theodore Mariash said Milan had all the power in the relationship and Milan was "grooming him." Mariash also told court Laing was a drug addict and was allegedly manipulated by Milan.

The defence asked for a community-based sentence given Laing's limited criminal history and because Milan is dead.

If the crime wasn't connected to Milan, "he wouldn't serve more than four to six months."

Bradley Laing met Trent Milan when the officer came to a call about his brother's suicide. (Facebook) Court heard Laing is clean and sober now and enrolled in school

"I'm sorry for everything that's happened and for Trent Milan and his family. It's tragic," Laing said over a video link to the courtroom from Brandon Correctional Centre. "I mean the whole thing makes me sick to my stomach."

The court heard, this past September the Winnipeg Police Professional Standards Unit brought Laing in for questioning about Milan. They asked him about two gold necklaces he had sold at a pawn shop in 2013.

Crown attorney Jim Ross said Laing first told police he didn't know where the gold chains came from but later admitted he got them from Milan.

He also told investigators that Milan had stolen the necklaces from two drug raids.

The two necklaces belonged to an alleged drug dealer the Street Crimes Unit was investigating back in 2010.

Gold chains custom-made and unique

Court was told they were custom-made gold chains with pendants and considered unique.

The first necklace was originally seized during the execution of a search warrant at the Marlborough Hotel in March 2010.

At the time, police charged the alleged drug dealer and seized his belongings including cash and the gold necklace. The charges were later dropped against the accused, who was not named in court.

Police subsequently returned the man's money but were unable to locate his gold necklace. Court heard it had been placed in a sealed exhibit bag, placed in an officer's drawer and locked.

Court exhibit of of one of the necklaces stolen by Winnipeg police officer Trent Milan. (Court exhibit) Milan is believed to have stolen it from the locked drawer. Ross said police were concerned about the missing bag of jewelery but were unable to find out who had taken it.

He said they knew it had to be an officer from the Street Crimes Unit where Milan had worked, but couldn't be certain who.

Ross said in 2015, an officer told a superior Milan had shown him a gold chain back in 2011, but the investigation into Milan didn't begin until late last fall. No details were given about that incident, or what, if anything, police did with that information at the time.

Court was told Milan stole the second necklace six weeks later, on May 6, 2010. He was the exhibit officer during the execution of a search warrant at the home of the same alleged drug dealer. That means he was in charge of seizing and logging property taken from the home.

Ross said Milan seized a 13-ounce bag of cocaine from the home. The homeowner said a large gold necklace had also been taken by police, but Ross said it was never entered into evidence and Milan denied taking it. Laing admitted pawning it for $6,100. He took $1,000 and gave Milan the rest.

Charges were eventually dropped against the accused drug dealer, who in turn sued the city for lost property on June 12, 2013 and won. He was paid $33,000 for the gold necklace.

In the end, Judge Kelly Moar sentenced Laing to four months in jail and one year of supervised probation. The time behind bars will amount to 36 days because he has been in custody since Sept. 12.

"You were a friend of his. You obviously would have known what he was doing," Moar said to Laing. "I appreciate you were in a bad situation but it's still a choice you made."