It has a sting in its tail for detective found in contempt over taking the lead (8)
I believe the answer is:
scorpion
'it has a sting in its tail for detective' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'in contempt over taking the lead' is the wordplay.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'contempt' becomes 'scorn' (synonyms).
'over' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'taking the lead' becomes 'oip' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'oip' back-to-front is 'pio'.
'scorn' enclosing 'pio' is 'SCORPION'.
'found' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scorpion that I've seen before include "Kind of arachnid with pincers and stinging tail" , "can sting one" , "Sting-tailed creature" , "Venemous creature" , "Venomous stinger" .)