What a clown!
PC who swapped barcode on £9.95 Krispy Kremes for 7p bag of carrots is sacked
A POLICE off i cer who switched a barcode so he paid just 7p for a £9.95 box of doughnuts was sacked yesterday.
PC Simon Read was found guilty of gross misconduct after taking a label from carrots and putting it on 12 Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
He then scanned the 7p code at a self-service till – but failed to scan the original Krispy Kreme code.
Read, 37, who was on duty and in uniform, was caught on CCTV at the Tesco store, weighing carrots on scales before placing the barcode sticker on the doughnut container. He told a police misconduct panel he had made an ‘honest mistake’ after failing to realise the scanner had not registered both stickers in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.
But barrister Mark Ley-Morgan, for Cambridgeshire Police, said it ‘beggars belief ’ that Read, who was also buying a sandwich and drink, had not noticed he was charged just over £4 for his bill instead of more
‘Stealing while in uniform’
than £14. He described Read as ‘an officer effectively stealing while in uniform’. Mr Ley-Morgan said: ‘He was using his uniform as cover. Who would be suspicious of a police officer?’ Sacking Read, panel chairman Sharmistha Michaels said: ‘We find that the seriousness of the offence is incompatible with his role as a police officer.
‘The offence involved dishonesty, which undermines the trust that the public place in the police and need to have... for their service to be effective.’ Read, who lives in Wisbech with wife Carly, 39, was accused of breaching two professional standards over conduct and honesty.
The incident happened in February this year. Read claimed the doughnuts were a ‘cake fine’ for police colleagues – a ‘light-hearted’ punishment for having a bad day or leaving or joining a department.
He said the carrots were a joke for his sergeant who was on a diet and he thought it ‘would be funny’ to conceal them in a Krispy Kreme bag. He denied trying to steal the treat sand claimed to have attempted to scan both stickers on the box, explaining: ‘ I simply scanned where I believed the barcodes were.’ But Mr Ley-Morgan told the panel in Peterborough: ‘He would have had to be standing there with his eyes closed not to see what was happening on the screen.’
Read, who served in Iraq with the Army, is a volunteer dog handler who helps search for missing people. He was pictured meeting Prince William’s wife Kate at an event in London last year. The PC, who has faced social media jibes including ‘Kreme doesn’t pay’, has a right to appeal.
Deputy Chief Constable Jane Gyford, of Cambridgeshire Police, said: ‘The public should be able to trust that police officers in their duty will act with honesty and integrity at all times.’ She added that she hoped the verdict offered reassurance that police will be ‘ held to account for their actions’.