THE county’s former police and crime commissioner Nick Alston has joined the board of the UK’s leading law enforcement agency.

Nick Alston was announced as a non-executive director of the National Crime Agency, the organised crime-fighting organisation.

Mr Alston was Essex’s first PCC from 2012 until he was replaced by Roger Hirst in May this year.

He previously held senior positions within the security and intelligence community and in the private sector at Digital Barriers and Goldman Sachs.

Mr Alston is also the chairman of the new Policing Institute at Anglia Ruskin University.

He said: ““I am delighted to have been appointed to the board of the NCA as a non-executive director and I am looking forward to learning more about the agency’s important work.

“I hope that my experience will be useful to the agency as it faces the exciting challenges that lie ahead.”

Lynne Owens, NCA Director General, said: “Nick’s previous role as a Police and Crime Commissioner will be extremely beneficial in further developing our relationships and joint working with policing and PCCs, in particular as we work with them in the delivery of the next stage of reforming the law enforcement system in line with the recently published 2025 Policing Vision.”

Mr Alston will be joined by fellow new director Wendy Barnes, a former board director in a FTSE 100 utility company and director general in Whitehall.