FORMER Hampshire police officers are starting a business in Hampshire that looks set to create 50 jobs.

Couple John and Alison James have set up their new company Home Instead Senior Care Fareham and Gosport, which will provide specialised inhome care for older people in the surrounding area.

Based in Fareham, the company is looking to employ 50 people in the next seven months.

Carers will serve clients in Fareham, Portchester, Stubbington, Titchfield, Wickham, Lee on Solent, Gosport and surrounding areas.

Home Instead Senior Care Fareham and Gosport is part of the larger organisation Home Instead Senior Care, which operates through a network of locally run offices across the country.

Mr and Mrs James, who met while working for Hampshire Police and have two children, say they were inspired to start the newcompany by their own careers and personal experiences.

Mr James, 53, from Netley Abbey, spent 25 years with the police, working up to chief superintendent in charge of Hampshire Special Branch and the Major Crime Team, investigating serious crimes across the county.

He then took a second career working with a Canadian-based software company supplying systems to police agencies across the world.

Mrs James, 48, worked for 18 years for the police as a custody sergeant at Fareham and before taking a break for family reasons had been training sergeants and recruits at Netley.

But the couple decided the time was right to launch their own business, which has now been running for eight weeks and currently employs seven staff.

However, Mr James said they were already finding demand was outstripping supply so they were looking to take on staff immediately.

And if the business continues to grow they hope to employ 100 people by their third year.

He added: “For Alison and I policing was a vocation with service to the local community as one of our main reasons for joining.

“There are many parallels between policing and the care sector, caring and protecting others is a vocation and a profession in the same way that policing is.”

Mr James said they hoped to change the undervalued perception of caring and would look to match up clients with caregivers on a long-term basis who would do calls for a minimum of an hour.