Police officer who used warrant card at nightclub after phoning in sick guilty of gross misconduct

A former police officer who used her warrant card to try and get into a nightclub after she phoned in sick for work has been found guilty of gross misconduct.

Holly Lee was told she would have been dismissed by South Yorkshire Police if she had not resigned before a disciplinary hearing in January.

She has been placed on a barred list, meaning she cannot be employed by another force.

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Lee was a student officer, who held the rank of police constable, in August 2022 when she told her sergeant she could not work a night shift because she was unwell.

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But in the early hours of the following day, Lee used her warrant card to try to gain entry to a nightclub in Sheffield when she was out drinking with friends.

In a ruling, Chief Constable Lauren Poultney said the former officer had “demonstrated a lack of honesty and integrity”.

She said: “In my judgement former PC Lee intentionally, deliberately and knowingly engaged in a course of serious misconduct, beginning with her false message to supervision, continuing with her attempts to gain access to the nightclub by misusing her police warrant card and status as a police officer and her dishonesty towards the attending officers, and concluding with further dishonest to supervision later that morning.

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“This was a sustained and persistent episode of serious misconduct.

"Whilst I recognise that former PC Lee’s dishonesty was not connected to operational policing, in my judgement it was dishonest, demonstrated a lack of integrity and included the misuse by former PC Lee of her status as a police officer.”

She added: “I bear in mind that the misconduct of a single officer can tarnish the reputation of a force and the service as a whole."

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