Senior officer ‘used force car for 900 miles of personal trips’

ASENIOR police officer acted “dishonestly” by using his force car for more than 900 miles of personal journeys, including one trip to transport a sofa on the vehicle’s roof, a disciplinary hearing has been told.

Superintendent Michael Rogers, who retired from Dorset Police in May this year, is accused of gross misconduct through four breaches of professional standards between 2015 and 2019.

He is alleged to have used pool and hire vehicles for private journeys and other work trips that he was not entitled to do, as well as under-declaring the amount of private mileage he drove in force vehicles.

Mr Rogers is also accused at a tribunal, being held at Dorset Police headquarters in Winfrith, of claiming expenses “far more” than the cost of meals that he had taken.

Mark Ley-Morgan, the lawyer presenting the case against Mr Rogers, said: “It’s the authority’s case Mr Rogers has failed to act with honesty and integrity and he abused his position as a superintendent.

“He has breached standards of conduct because he has behaved in a manner that discredits the police service and public confidence in it.”

He continued: “This isn’t the case where there has been the odd slip-up or mistake – we say that it’s properly described as a course of conduct.

“That dishonest course of conduct has involved misuse of pool cars and hire cars, under-declaring personal mileage, and claiming expenses that he has not incurred.”

Mr Ley-Morgan said Mr Rogers was given an essential user allowance of £103.25 a month to use his private car for work journeys and 15.5p per business mile – an allowance only given to senior officers.

But he said Mr Rogers continued to use pool cars and hire cars, not only for work journeys but for personal trips as well.

He said these journeys included one in which he carried a sofa on a Skoda’s roof, as well as trips to recycling centres and to B&Q.

Mr Ley-Morgan said: “This is systematic, repeated use; you do not clock up 900 miles of unclaimed personal miles through the odd little detour.”

Mr Ley-Morgan said Mr Rogers swapped from using pool vehicles to hire cars from external companies after he was asked to explain why he had been speeding during a trip to Stansted which had been recorded on the force vehicle’s tracker.

He said the “sinister” reason for this was that Mr Rogers “stopped using them because he realised he could be tracked”.

Mr Rogers told the tribunal: “I do not dispute the use of the vehicles. I think I have sound operational reasons to use those specific vehicles.”

He added: “I am not dishonest. If I made mistakes I sincerely apologise.”

Mr Ley-Morgan said that in February 2017, Mr Rogers declared 487 miles of work mileage and 100 miles of personal mileage which all occurred while he was actually on secondment to the Falklands.

He added that even though Mr Rogers’s partner had paid him £52 to cover the cost to be reimbursed to the force for the total of this mileage, he had only declared an amount of £9 worth of personal mileage.

Mr Ley-Morgan said: “He is a man obsessed with money, getting any advantage he can, even to the point he rips off his partner.”

The hearing, expected to last seven days, continues.