SC Warren

NOTICE OF OUTCOME OF PUBLIC HEARING

I have determined that an outcome notice in relation to the misconduct hearing of the
below named officer will be published

Legally Qualified Chair: Mr James Rickard

Dates of Hearing: 19 – 20 July 2021
Officer: Special Constable 75510 James Warren

Breach of the professional standards of behaviour amounting to a breach of the professional standard of honesty and integrity in that in a document, written by the officer, appealing against a vetting decision, the officer declared that at a disciplinary meeting held on the 4th of November 2018 he advised the Inspector and Sergeant present that he had not committed the act which was the subject of the meeting.

This denial was put forward in an appeal against a vetting decision made by the constabulary following an unsuccessful application by the officer to join the regular Police service. In that vetting appeal document the officer stated that he had denied the original allegation put to him by the officers at the meeting on the 4th November 2018 and about which “management action” had been agreed as an appropriate and proportionate way forward. The appropriate authority said that he had admitted the matter in clear terms to the officers and had not denied it as he stated. The appropriate authority considered this to be a lie by the officer to Devon and Cornwall Constabulary.

The officer denied the breach of professional standard. He did not attend the hearing at his own request and through Counsel requested that the hearing continue in his absence as is permissible under the regulations. The panel accepted the reasons for his nonattendance and no adverse inferences were drawn from his non-attendance. The panel found that on the balance of probabilities that the Appropriate Authority had proved the case that the officer had breached the professional standard of honesty and integrity, in that on the evidence that we read and heard the officer had lied in the vetting appeal by stating that he had not admitted the original wrongdoing at the meeting on the 4th November 2018.

In relation to the misconduct the panel felt that the misconduct was so serious that it was Gross misconduct.

The panel having considered the matter in accordance with the college of policing guidelines considered the only appropriate outcome was immediate dismissal.