Complaints against officers

[Fedster + 1,307]

PC Thomas Hooper has been on restricted duties for at least a year.

A Met police officer is facing dismissal for gross misconduct over a tin of medium-sized biscuits he is accused of stealing from a colleague.

PC Thomas Hooper, attached to Kingston Operational Command Unit, is accused of breaches of honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct over both the biscuits and a separate alleged driving offence.

It is alleged PC Hooper took a tin of biscuits belonging to another officer early morning on May 7, 2016 from a communal staff cupboard, and provided a false account of the incident on October 10, 2016.

He is also accused of speeding in police response mode without appropriate justification on May 3, 2016 and later providing a false account of his driving to avoid a fixed penalty notice.

He denies all the charges.

Charles Althorp, counsel for the Met Police Service said: “The incident on May 7 relates to taking a tin of biscuits. The evidence is the officer went up there looking for something to take in the morning and takes PC Josh’s personal property. He is aware it is not appropriate conduct.

“He showed a fundamental lack of integrity and honesty.

“It’s not the value of the property, it’s what he has done. He had no right to take it [the biscuits]."

Counsel for the PC Hooper, Ben Summers, said PC Hooper had apologised and offered to pay for the biscuits and that the reason he had driven over 50mph in a 30mph zone was because a mental health patient had vomited in the back of the police van he was driving and the stench combined with the hot weather that day was so unbearable it amounted to a health hazard.

In July last year Police Oracle reported PC Hooper had already been on restricted duties for a year over the allegations. 

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[mike88 + 257]

I must admit I wouldn't be happy if someone took something I'd pay for without my permission, unless it was a pen or something silly. A biscuit or two from a communal area fair enough but if it's an entire tin that they're not intending on giving back then that takes the mickey. With his driving he should've justified it at the time to cover his backside, if there was indeed a legitimate reason and he wasn't just speeding. As a police officer he should know that.

As usual though something this trivial shouldn't take a year to sort out.

[Removed User 16-12-21 8]

This seems a bit harsh to me.

[Hyphen + 693]

I think the taking of the tin of biscuits is a bit of a red herring. It is a completely pathetic thing on its own and not worthy of the time and money spent.

The reason he is in trouble from the sounds of it is he has allegedly lied about it and lied about why he was speeding.

Unfortunately if proven he would have to lose his job.

How many times are cops told from day one, if you do something silly or mess up hold your hands up and take it on the chin. Don’t try and lie and cover it up. 

Either way it should never take this long for the investigation to come to a conclusion.

[Removed User 16-12-21 8]

Just now, Hyphen said:

I think the taking of the tin of biscuits is a bit of a red herring. It is a completely pathetic thing on its own and not worthy of the time and money spent.

The reason he is in trouble from the sounds of it is he has allegedly lied about it and lied about why he was speeding.

Unfortunately if proven he would have to lose his job.

How many times are cops told from day one, if you do something silly or mess up hold your hands up and take it on the chin. Don’t try and lie and cover it up. 

Either way it should never take this long for the investigation to come to a conclusion.

Thank you for that! I now think that this is fair enough.

[Hyphen + 693]

All I would say is I can only go on the brief article, there may be more to the story.

[Reasonable Man + 1,231]

Most officers who have been sacked over the last 3 years in the force I am currently working in have been sacked for their dishonesty and lack of integrity when lying about the thing they were investigated for, not for doing the initial thing.
Unfortunately headlines such as this make it look like they are sacked over something trivial.

[junior_7178 62]

Poor headline. It should read "Met PC could loose his job for lying". But i guess that doesn't sell papers.

[Jeebs + 1,190]

I was told when I first joined that if you messed up, did something or didn’t do something don’t lie about it. Just hold your hands up and take whatever comes your way, just don’t lie.

[Mac7 808]

Without integrity you have nothing.

His speeding “defence” is farcical.

[Fedster + 1,307]

Gross misconduct referral was 'justified' over 'stolen' biscuits, hearing told

Inspector claims 'the option was to go to DPS because of the gravity of the situation'

Referring a police officer to professional standards for taking box of “posh” biscuits from a communal cupboard during a difficult night shift was the “only option”, a sergeant said at a misconduct hearing on Monday.

Met officer PC Thomas Hooper, attached to Kingston Operational Command Unit, is accused of breaches of honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct over both the biscuits and a separate alleged driving offence.

It is alleged PC Hooper took a tin of biscuits belonging to another officer early morning on May 7, 2016 from a communal staff cupboard, and provided a false account of the incident on October 10, 2016.

He is also accused of speeding in police response mode without appropriate justification on May 3, 2016 and later providing a false account of his driving to avoid a fixed penalty notice.

Counsel for PC Hooper, Ben Summers, said the PC had apologised and offered to pay for the biscuits and that the reason he had driven over 50mph in a 30mph zone was because a mental health patient had vomited in the back of the police van he was driving and the stench combined with the hot weather that day was so unbearable it amounted to a health hazard.

In a statement taken by Inspector Mark Bullen, PC Hooper admitted taking the two-tier “Christmas” sized box of biscuits but said he would “happily” replace them, the misconduct hearing was told.

Misconduct panel chairwoman Nahied Asjad questioned PC Hooper’s line manager Sergeant Sarah Blake, who is now a temporary Inspector with Gloucestershire Police, over why she decided not to deal with the matter internally.

She said: “Regulation 21 refers to the public not having confidence.  The public are going to be concerned  about how much money has been spent on this investigation and the value of the box of biscuits.

“Are you saying the only option open to you was to refer the matter to DPS [the Directorate of Professional Standards]?

“And the only thing you and the Inspector [Mark Bullen] could come up with was to refer the matter to DPS?”

Inspector Blake responded: “The option was to go to DPS because of the gravity of the situation.”

Ms Asjad pointed out that by the time the referral it had been established PC Hooper had offered to pay for the biscuits.  

The panel also raised concerns about the consistency of both Insp Blake and Insp Bullen’s evidence.

Ms Asjad said it seemed to her a “huge coincidence” that Insp Blake had left an “awful lot of information” out of her statements but made “very similar” mistakes to Insp Bullen.

She asked why Insp Blake had not mentioned in her statement speaking to PC Darren Johnson about PC Hooper - PC Johnson had recalled Insp Blake asking him if he could remember much about his colleague giving out biscuits on May 7, 2016.

Insp Bullen had not mentioned PC Johnson either.

The chairwoman was also concerned that Insp Blake knew the biscuits were kept in a cupboard normally filled with files, even though the owner of the biscuits had only passed this information to Inspector Bullen.

In addition, the panel were confused that Insp Blake said she had become suspicious of PC Hooper’s version of why he had broken the speed limit because of ‘timing discrepancies’ even though he had openly admitted he had switched on the police vans ‘blues and twos’ after dropping off a violent mental health patient.

Ms Asjad said: “Why is there no reference to Johnson being party to the conversation you had with Insp Bullen?

“What you said today is you didn’t do an investigation into the matter and wanted to refer it to an inspector but isn’t speaking to Johnson an investigation?  So why didn’t you speak to PC Hooper?

“So far your statement missing an awful lot of information.

“What is troubling me is the only person who knew that box of biscuits was in that cupboard was Insp Bullen.

“The food [...] was never kept there but that box of biscuits was and the only person she told that to was Insp Bullen.

“That’s a huge coincidence isn’t it.”

Insp Blake insisted she had seen food items in the storage cupboard and “knew what she saw.”

Ms Asjad added: “You started off by saying there’s discrepancy in the timings."

Insp Blake responded: “I know there was an issue with the call being for the violent male but the speeding ticket was for the return journey, which makes this justification incorrect.”

But the chairwoman pointed out: “There can be no discrepancy because PC talks about the return journey when he activated the blues and twos.

“Where is the discrepancy?”

The hearing was told how Insp Blakes’s name appears on a fixed penalty notice cancellation form alongside a statement validating PC Hooper’s account, but without a signature.

Insp Blake insisted the fact she did not sign the form demonstrates she did not agree with the statement but was unable to explain why she didn’t correct the mistake.

“There is no proof that’s come from me. I have not signed that form to say it is correct,” she said.

Insp Bullen was also questioned over similarities between his statement and Insp Blake’s.

Independent assessor Mark Bent said: "[Reading from statement] 'He acknowledged he had no right to take the biscuits and should not have taken them'. Can you answer why that appears verbatim in Blake’s statement and yours?”

He responded: “It was perhaps something we spoke about after the meeting and maybe subconsciously included in our statements.”

The hearing continues.

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[Zulu 22 + 4,571]

Theft is theft full stop. Inventing a lame excuse for speeding shows further dishonesty and I have no sympathy. However this should have been dealt with, done and dusted months ago, no excuse for the delay.

[Hyphen + 693]

Interesting reading, the chairwoman does not sound impressed at all by the sgt or inspector 

[Zulu 22 + 4,571]

6 hours ago, Hyphen said:

Interesting reading, the chairwoman does not sound impressed at all by the sgt or inspector 

It is a very difficult time in a career if you have an officer who is prepared to steal from colleagues.  It is something where whatever you do there will be someone who finds fault. You need to have been in the situation of arresting another officer to realise.

[Fedster + 1,307]

Sergeant "raised an eyebrow" over alleged biscuit theft incident

PC Thomas Hooper could be kicked out of the Met Police over allegations he stole biscuits from a fellow officer.

A Met officer who is fighting for his job over allegations he stole a colleague’s biscuits has rejected claims he said “f**k ‘em, if they’re stupid enough to leave them out”.

PC Thomas Hooper, attached to Kingston Operational Command Unit, is accused of breaches of honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct over both the biscuits and a separate alleged driving offence.

It is alleged PC Hooper took a tin of biscuits belonging to another officer early morning on May 7, 2016 from a communal staff cupboard, and provided a false account of the incident on October 10, 2016.

He is also accused of speeding in police response mode without appropriate justification on May 3, 2016 and later providing a false account of his driving to avoid a fixed penalty notice.

He formally denied all charges at the start of the hearing.

Counsel for PC Hooper, Ben Summers, said the officer had apologised and offered to pay for the biscuits and that the reason he had driven over 50mph in a 30mph zone was because a mental health patient had vomited in the back of the police van he was driving and the stench combined with the hot weather that day was so unbearable it amounted to a health hazard.

Fellow Kingston officer Darren Johnson told the hearing today that Sergeant Sarah Blake (now an Inspector at Gloucestershire Police), who reported the biscuit incident to the directorate of professional standards, “raised an eyebrow” but stayed silent when she walked into the room where PC Hooper was giving biscuits to colleagues.

Mr Summers said to PC Johnson: “You know from time to time things get left out and other people help themselves. And the way people are doing this is that is most likely with the belief these items have been left out for others to use.

“Sometimes things are deliberately left out if someone has a baby or something to celebrate.

“Other times thing get left out by accident and people get confused.

“You don’t know where these biscuits came from precisely at the time. You knew they were a selection pack of biscuits.

“The point when you took one you didn’t know where they came from but you assumed they came from the tea club.”

PC Johnson responded: “He didn’t make any secret about it.”

He added that several other officers were on duty at the time and joined in without comment.

Mr Summers said PC Johnson in his statement had described PC Hooper saying “If they’re stupid enough to leave them out” after his colleagues had started eating them.

“PC Hooper firmly denies he said 'f**k’ em if they’re stupid enough'...”

PC Johnson confirmed no one had objected to the biscuit sharing or given their treat back in response.

But counsel for the Met Police, Charles Althorp asked PC Johnson if he would have accepted a biscuit in the first place after the “stupid enough” comment was made.

“I would have been less inclined to have taken it. Just the nature of the response, it made me feel uncomfortable.

“It felt he was taking advantage of the situation,” he told the misconduct hearing.

The hearing then moved on to the driving incident.

CCTV footage played showed a number of officers attempting to control a man as he violently “hacked”, retched and screamed over and over while another man’s voice can be heard saying: “We want to look after you mate, are you prepared to come in?”

Evidence was heard from Inspector Bullen and PC Annabel Raynor.

In a written statement partially read out at the hearing, Inspector Bullen reported PC Raynor had told him there was only a little bit of vomit in the vehicle and that it did not make her feel sick. She can, however, be heard retching as she gets back into the van at Wandsworth custody suite.

PC Raynor, who was the operator of the police van on the way back to Kingston Police station, can be heard telling PC Hooper “Oh no, there’s vomit all over the floor. It’s disgusting I’m just preparing myself to climb over the vomit.

“If there’s two things I can’t deal with it’s snot and vomit.”

She told the hearing she was looking for a number on her radio to get the van cleaned and that vomit “makes me gag”.

The words “public interest” can faintly be heard.

Yesterday Mr Summers told the hearing that there was no hose PC Hooper could have used to clean the van and as a new shift was due to start, if he did not return quickly to wash it out at Kingston there would be no van for colleagues taking over.

She said she had not been asked to make a statement or even take notes on her memory of the day until some 17 months later in October 2017.

PC Raynor says she has no recollection of the conversation with Insp Bullen about the incident or of May 3 and was relying on the CCTV footage.

In July last year Police Oracle reported PC Hooper had already been on restricted duties for a year over the allegations.

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