Police officer accused of lying to avoid speeding ticket could be sacked

PC Gavin Smith, based in Bradford, has been charged with gross misconduct and he will face a four-day disciplinary hearing, which will begin on Monday.

He was banned from driving any vehicle on behalf of the force after activating the blue lights without authorisation on multiple occasions, when he was on duty in December 2021.

According to the force, the officer was also caught speeding in a marked police vehicle when he was on duty.

The speeding ticket was cancelled after PC Smith told the force he had been driving at high speed to stop a suspect who was driving erratically after running through a red light.

But the force said he “provided this information knowing it to be untrue in order to have his speeding ticket cancelled”.

After the driving ban was imposed, he allegedly drove a vehicle, which he had seized because the driver had no insurance, until his supervisor told him to stop as he was not permitted to do so.

If the allegations are proven, the officer could be dismissed from the force without notice.

It comes after a former West Yorkshire Police officer who “put the frighteners on” a mother in Wakefield “as a favour” was found guilty of gross misconduct.

The force said Wioleta Wesolowska turned up in uniform at a house in Wakefield, in June 2021, and made “false and inappropriate statements” to a woman who was having a dispute with her neighbour.

The PC posed as a detective when she was off duty and claimed she had been sent to arrest the woman, even though she had not been instructed or authorised to deal with the dispute.

Wesolowska was told that she would have been dismissed from the force if she had not resigned.