Andy Coles

Andrew Wallace Jardine Coles (born 1960) is an English former police officer and Conservative Party politician, known for his undercover police work in the 1990s and subsequent political career.

Career Andy Coles joined the Metropolitan Police in 1982, serving until 2012. Between 1991 and 1995, Coles served as an undercover Metropolitan Police officer infiltrating animal rights groups. He used the cover name Andy Davey. Coles wrote a tradecraft manual of the Special Demonstration Squad which advised subsequent undercover officers on managing sexual relationships with those they were targeting and the use of dead children's names as cover identities.

Coles was elected as a member of Peterborough City Council for the Conservative Party in 2015 and he was appointed to the Cabinet of Peterborough City Council to lead Children’s Services.

Following reference to his undercover police work in an autobiography written by his brother Richard Coles, activists uncovered his true identity in 2017.

He resigned as deputy police and crime commissioner in 2017 over the allegations. He remained a councillor until he lost his seat in the 2024 Peterborough City Council election; he was not elected in a May 2025 council by-election.

He was married to Louise, a fellow councillor and former teacher; she died in 2020.