A Norfolk police constable has resigned after being fined £1,000 for illegally obtaining information from a police computer.

PC Sarah Corner, 24, was due to face a gross misconduct hearing at police headquarters in Wymondham on Friday, October 26 after pleading guilty to offences under the Data Protection Act.

Corner was prosecuted on September, 28, at Norwich Magistrates' Court for obtaining personal data from a police computer, without the consent of the data controller.

Corner of College Drive, near Kings Lynn, was fined £1,000 at the court after admitting she had breached the Data Protection Act 1998.

But the BBC reported that she resigned on October 18 ahead of the disciplinary hearing, due to be chaired by chief constable Simon Bailey.

Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey told the BBC that Corner would have been dismissed without notice had she still been a serving officer.

The hearing notice said the officer's conduct 'breached the expected standards of professional behaviour in the areas of: confidentiality, honesty and integrity amounting to discreditable conduct'.

Mr Bailey said the actions of the former PC were a clear breach of trust amounting to gross misconduct.

He said: 'The public have the right to expect that police officers do not misuse police computer systems and that information held should be treated in strictest confidence,

'Accessing confidential police information without a legitimate police purpose is a serious abuse of an officer's position and undermines public confidence.'