A Thames Valley Police officer has been dismissed without notice after using a police ‘pool car’ for his own personal use.
Trevor Williams was accused of using a police vehicle on eight different occasions from February 24, 2020 to February 20, 2023 for his own personal use.
A pool car is a company vehicle that's available for use by one or more employees of that company.
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The officer admitted to using the car, stating his own personal car had not been available to him due to his wife using it for ‘work or family visits’. He added that sometimes his own car had mechanical issues.
As a result, a misconduct hearing took place against Williams from August 27 to 29. The panel concluded he should be ‘dismissed without notice’ due to being in breach of the Standards of Professional Behaviour.
It was dubbed ‘an abuse of his position’.
During the hearing, it was heard that Williams had used the car to attend police training at Windsor Police Station as well as three week residential training course at Sulhamstead. He also took the car to travel to and from work in Maidenhead on several occasions.
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On one occasion, on December 18, 2021, he failed to return the pool car despite having being requested to do so once his training had ended.
It was heard that Williams had been warned about using the pool car for personal use, including written warnings.
The panel stated that Williams had caused ‘a significant risk of actual harm’ being taking the pool car as it meant it was unavailable to other officers leading to them potentially being unable to ‘properly perform their duties and assistant members of the public, resulting in actual harm to those members of the public’.
They added that the use of the pool case could ‘undermine confidence in the police service were it to become known to the public’.
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In a decision published online, the panel wrote: “It would create the impression that police officers can pick and choose which rules and regulations to follow – in effect, it would be considered that there was one rule for police officers and another for members of the public.”
Concluding the panel, they considered whether to give Williams a final written warning to reduce his rank, but decided the appropriate action was dismissal.
They wrote: “In all the circumstances, the Panel has determined that the only reasonable, proportionate and appropriate disciplinary action in this case is dismissal without notice.”
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