Police criminals keep their jobs (From The Argus)

Sussex's police criminals keep their jobs

10:30pm Wednesday 11th March 2009 in News By Andy Tate and Samuel Underwood

A policeman convicted of assault twice has been allowed to stay on the beat in Sussex.

Police bosses revealed that the shamed Sergeant was allowed to keep his job - despite having committed a pair of assaults.

The unnamed officer, who was handed two 180-hour community punishment orders for his crimes, was sacked by the force after his conviction but then reinstated by the Home Office after an appeal.

Sussex Police also admitted a further eight officers were still on duty despite being convicted of nine offences between them, including assault, careless or reckless driving, driving without due care or attention, failing to report an incident and speeding.

The shocking figures, published by the Liberal Democrats, who obtained the information from police forces across the country under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that one PC had been convicted of having sex with a child under 16.

After his court case he was given a conditional discharge for three years, made to pay costs of £55 and placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.

A disciplinary tribunal was arranged but the officer resigned before the hearing.

A Chief Inspector from Sussex was jailed for three years for theft, forgery and deception but also quit the Force before his disciplinary hearing.

Over the last eight years another three officers have been dismissed after being convicted of drink driving.

Across the country more than 1,000 serving police officers were shown to have criminal convictions.

Lionel Barnard, the chairman of Sussex Police Authority, said: “These figures need to be kept in perspective.

“We are not talking about vast numbers of officers but just an average of about one a year.

“These officers would have been through the proper disciplinary procedure and like the rest of us can have a spent conviction and keep their jobs.”

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: “Sussex Police prides itself on the professionalism of its officers and treats any convictions received by them extremely seriously.

“There are currently in excess of 3,000 serving officers and in the past eight years only eight officers have remained serving following any convictions.

“The numbers are therefore very small and, in each case, the individual circumstances have been the subject of careful consideration beforehand.”