Former Chief Inspector for Surrey Police Tanya Brookes

A shamed senior policewoman described as ‘a disgrace to her uniform’ by a judge has been freed from prison just four months into a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for fraud.

Former Chief Inspector Tanya Brookes, 46, who was convicted of dishonestly making £11,000, is now back home with her husband and children.

Her early release was described as ‘outrageous’ last night after The Mail on Sunday discovered Brookes, who served with Surrey Police, had been allowed out with a tag on ‘home detention curfew’ following a successful appeal to reduce her sentence to 18 months. Even taking that into account, she has served less than a quarter of her time in jail – and will even keep her generous pension.

The mother of four, who was convicted of 33 charges, cheated shops by forging vouchers or claiming refunds for goods such as micro-scooters and blankets that she had bought at a discount online.

Jailing her at Winchester Crown Court in May, Judge Andrew Barnett said: ‘You have disgraced the uniform you once wore.’

Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner Kevin Hurley said: ‘It is outrageous that Tanya Brookes has been allowed out of prison so soon. It looks wrong.’

The Ministry of Justice said it would not comment on individual prisoners.

Nicholas Tucker, prosecuting at the case back in May, said at the start of the first trial how Brookes, who was also married to another senior police officer, David, had joined the Surrey force as a university graduate and he described her as a 'high-flyer'.

He said that it was as she was about to mark her 20 years’ service in July 2011 that she became the subject of an investigation by her own force.

In his opening of the case, Mr Tucker said one of Brookes’s main targets was The White Company.

He said that she would buy items such as Poitier cotton sheets or a cashmere satin-edge blanket from the chain’s outlet store in Bicester, Oxfordshire, at a discount rate.

Outlet: Brookes, 46, made trips to Bicester Village, the outlet street in Oxfordshire, to buy cheap items

She would then falsify a bank statement on her computer showing that the full price for the product had been paid and return it to another branch of the store and fraudulently reclaim the difference in price.

She would tell shop staff that the items had been bought by 'an extravagant great aunt'.

Mr Tucker continued: 'Mrs Brookes would often be wearing her police ID on a lanyard round her neck - this was irregular, and the prosecution say it was a ploy by Mrs Brookes to capitalise on the trust people tend to place in police officers.'

He also described how she fraudulently gained a £6,000 discount from a luxury holiday for her family by falsely claiming that she was a counter-terrorism officer at Gatwick Airport.

The deceit was in order to claim a discount given to people connected with the travel industry from specialist holiday firm Caribbean Unpackaged for the £10,000 trip to Buccament Bay on St Vincent.

Mr Tucker said that Brookes even sent an email to the company saying they could not pass on her details because her identity was a secret because of the nature of the role.

Mr Tucker added that as she returned from this holiday, Brookes also falsely claimed for a damaged Buggaboo buggy worth £849 and a Maclaren buggy worth £195 from British Airways by providing a forged proof of purchase from John Lewis.