South Yorkshire police officer sacked for removing items from property store

Sergeant Christopher Simpson was dismissed without notice after a misconduct hearing.

South Yorkshire Police said Sgt Simpson was found guilty of gross misconduct.

It was alleged that ‘on a number of occasions the officer removed items from a police property store without any legitimate reason for doing so’. The misconduct hearing heard that the police officer had removed items from a ‘destruction bin’ and told colleagues he intended to use them in training exercises.

It was also claimed that Sgt Simpson breached the rules of his suspension by entering a police station without permission and misleading other officers about the ‘legitimacy of his presence’.

In a statement posted on the force website, South Yorkshire Police said: “An officer was found to have entered the property store on a number of occasions and removed items from the destruction bin, stating that he had intended to use the items for training purposes, although no recent training had occurred. In addition, after the officer was suspended he returned to the police station, despite knowing that his suspension expressly forbade this. The panel, chaired by a legally qualified chair, decided that both aspects of misconduct were proven, that there was no policing purpose to remove the items on three occasions and that this amounted to gross misconduct. The officer was dismissed without notice.”