A Norfolk police officer has been sacked for spending hours repeatedly visiting the home of a female colleague when he was meant to be on duty.
PC Aaron McCoy was found to have paid her visits on 13 separate occasions and to have breached Covid rules when doing so.
His sacking comes amid increased scrutiny of police misconduct following high-profile scandals including the hit-and-run crash case involving a Norfolk officer said to have amnesia.
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PC McCoy's visits to the woman were over a three-month period during the pandemic and continued at a time when she actually had Covid symptoms.
Other members of his team became aware of his visits and he was confronted by one of them. He promised to stop going to see the woman but continued to do so.
One visit, on December 22, 2021, lasted three hours. Another, three days later on Christmas Day, saw him use a prisoner van to drive to the woman’s home for four hours when he was meant to be carrying out police work.
Norfolk Constabulary has not released the identity of the female colleague, or said whether she was meant to be working at the time.
It has also not said if she has faced any sanctions, but a spokeswoman said her case had been concluded "in line with staff disciplinary policy".
A misconduct panel has ruled PC McCoy - whose role has not been disclosed but who was previously part of a 'response' team dealing with incidents in the north of Norwich - should be dismissed without notice.
They said he had “dishonestly and covertly" absented himself from work, "sometimes using police vehicles to do so, for non-policing purposes”.
In doing so, he had breached expected standards of professional behaviour amounting to gross misconduct.
WHY HAS PC MCCOY BEEN SACKED?
The panel said after his lengthy Christmas Day visit PC McCoy had been confronted by one of his colleagues about the impact his repeated absences were having on the rest of his team.
“The officer apologised and said that he would never again visit her when on duty. In fact, as admitted by the officer, he proceeded to visit on a number of further occasions whilst on duty,” said the panel’s report.
It said he had also breached national pandemic rules by visiting on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day despite knowing the woman had Covid symptoms putting “himself and colleagues at risk of infection”.
At the time, people with Covid were meant to be self-isolating for seven days.
Why PC McCoy, an authorised firearms officer, made the visits is not disclosed with some sections of the report relating to his mitigation redacted.
‘A LOSS TO POLICING’
The panel, which heard the case last month, said it had received a “very substantial bundle” of character references for PC McCoy including from colleagues and senior officers praising his “dedication to policing”.
It was told he had now “reflected on his actions” and would “not be repeating the sort of behaviour that has led to these proceedings”.
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Chair of the disciplinary hearing Andrew Hearn said the panel felt he “would be a considerable loss to the force”.
“Nevertheless the panel concluded that taking into account the admitted facts and mitigating factors, the only appropriate sanction is dismissal,” he added.
The PC has the right to appeal against the panel findings.
RISE IN POLICE MISCONDUCT CASES
PC McCoy is among an increasing number of Norfolk police officers facing misconduct investigations, which rose by almost 50pc last year.
Last month another Norfolk officer was sacked for gross misconduct after watching video evidence of a serious assault despite having no connection to the case.
READ MORE: Sacked Norfolk PC watched assault video 'out of curiosity'
In a separate case, also heard last month, a disciplinary panel said a former officer, PC Mitchell Froom, would have been sacked had he not already resigned after engaging in inappropriate contact and comments to female colleagues.
That comes on top of five officers having been sacked and 12 have been given warnings in the previous three years.
And the force is currently embroiled in the scandal sparked by a hit-and-run crash involving a police officer on the A146. PC Karl Warren was initially told he would face no action after claiming he had been suffering from amnesia at the time.
Chief constable Paul Sanford has said he expects more officers to face disciplinary action in the coming months amid efforts to address public confidence in policing.
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