A POLICE officer who carried out special investigations for his hairdresser has been sacked.

Paul Froggatt was dismissed from Thames Valley Police today for misconduct following a three-day hearing at the force's Kidlington headquarters this week.

The hearing was told how how Mr Froggatt, who was based at Bicester, had taken a personal request from his barber Ben Newton to investigate alleged threats from the father of his partner’s child, and assigned himself the investigating officer in the case.

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He then arranged to collect Mr Newton’s statement in the case, but did not disclose that he knew Mr Newton.

During the hearing, Mr Froggatt did accept that he made an unprofessional comment when he told Mr Newton that he should have a ‘blanket party’ on the man – a term, the court heard, to describe the practice of concealing a person beneath a blanket and beating them.

However he consistently denied misconduct, insisting his intent was to ‘give good service’ and would not seek to do anything differently in the case.

On another occasion in October 2016, PC Froggatt received a call from Mr Newton saying a man had been threatening to attack his barber shop in Bicester. PC Froggatt then contacted CCTV officers based in Banbury to direct a camera at the shop.

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He said: “I called up the CCTV officer and asked them to be mindful if a man would return to the barber shop. I was concerned that the man would come back. I’d do nothing differently. I was doing it in response to the circumstances explained.”

Mr Froggatt faced a total of eight allegations, and the hearing panel at Kidlington found that six of the allegations were proven and that this amounted to gross misconduct.

Deputy Chief Constable Jason Hogg said: “PC Froggatt’s conduct breached the standards of professional behaviour in respect of honesty and integrity, confidentiality, discreditable conduct, duties and responsibilities and orders and instructions.

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“He appointed himself officer in charge of an investigation into an allegation of harassment made by an associate.

“Further, PC Froggatt also attempted to obstruct the course of justice in relation to a Fixed Penalty Notice that had been issued to the brother of his associate.

“PC Froggatt also conducted checks on police systems on behalf of his associate.

“During this period, PC Froggatt and his associate would communicate directly with each other regarding these matters, rather than going through normal channels as other members of the public have to.

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“Finally, when PC Froggatt did disclose his relationship with the aforementioned individual he failed to give full disclosure to the force.

"PC Froggatt allowed himself to provide a personal policing service to an undisclosed associate. This resulted in personal and professional boundaries becoming blurred which has led to this misconduct process.”