FROM detective to matchmaker might sound like the plot of an oddball comedy but for one ex-cop it makes perfect sense.

Former police constable Tara McDonnell has set up a dating agency and said her previous career with Sussex Police has equipped her well for the job.

The 47-year-old believes her “sixth sense” and interviewing skills honed over years of police work helps her read people and avert dating horror stories.

She said: “Certainly when people know what I have done for a living, I believe that would be very difficult for them to sit in front of me and pretend they were somebody they are not.

“I have got a national certificate in interviewing – achieving best evidence. I am good at researching as well and finding anything out about people.”

Ms McDonnell, from Peacehaven, set up Southdowns Introductions at the start of the year and said she now has about 200 love-seeking professionals on the books.

They profile is about 60% women and 40% men, based in Sussex as well as Hampshire, Surrey and Kent.

She organises social events where clients can meet and also sets them up on dates, meeting prospective clients first herself.

“I do ask the man to give the lady a call,” she said.

“I will give them lots of support and will make suggestions.

“First date should not be a dinner but maybe a glass of wine or a coffee.

“Then I will get lots of feedback from both of them about how they felt it went.”

In a long-term relationship herself, the matchmaker said she is happy with her new career.

She said: “I love meeting people and finding out about them and really helping them.

“To be able to put them in touch with somebody and get them excited about dating again is a really good feeling.”

Yet for someone who used to make people follow the rules, she now wishes they did not have so many.

She said: “Often people will come to me with specifications of how they want their partner to be.

“So, for example, they might say, ‘he must be 6ft 2in’.

“I say, ‘well we are human at the end of the day and we don’t fit in little boxes’.

“I tell clients if I see somebody really compatible but shorter than that, I would come to you and leave it to you to make the decision.”

Other major career moves

- In March 2014, The Argus reported West Sussex fireman Gary Butcher had given up his 15-year career to try to live without modern technology while filming a documentary about it

- Former fireman Aidan Stephenson, from Hassocks, became an actor and in 2013 starred in his own production of a Samuel Beckett play at Brighton Fringe

- Sussex mother Lisa Cue gave up banking when she had her first child and retrained as an electrician

- Graham Cox became a politician after ending his career with Sussex Police as the detective chief superintendent in charge of Sussex CID. He is now the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Hove