A Derbyshire police officer has avoided dismissal despite it being proven he “did deliberately lie” on occasions to a road accident victim and struggled to deal with all aspects of his job.
An independent panel found the actions of PC Joshua Poultney amounted to gross misconduct but concluded they were “influenced by his disability”.
But the misconduct report, published to the public, is redacted and does not explain the exact nature of PC Poultney’s disability. This is despite the panel claiming Derbyshire police’s reputational harm would be mitigated should the public know the particular circumstances of the case.
The hearing centred on the actions of PC Poultney between December 2022 and September 2023 when he was tasked with investigating a road accident involving “Person A”, who reported the incident to police after her insurer suggested the other driver had no insurance.
It was alleged and accepted the officer “failed to act diligently” in that he made two false statements to Person A “which led her to believe that he had submitted a file to the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) when he had not”. There were other communication issues, including the officer updating a crime recording system “to say he had updated Person A when he had not done so”.
PC Poultney accepted that he “dishonestly misrepresented” the status of the case to Person A on two occasions, updated the crime recording system “erroneously” and failed to progress the investigation appropriately.
PC Poultney’s explanation for his failures were because he struggled to perform all aspects of his job at Derbyshire police. It states he had “very limited knowledge” about how to put together a road traffic case and “did not know” there was a six-month time limit for prosecuting most road traffic matters.
The report said the officer was “clearly struggling with his workload” and mental health was “poor”. His initial tutoring period with the force was extended because of difficulties he was facing.
The report also refers to the officer’s disability – which is not revealed as the document is redacted – and says he was under “considerable stress”. It states: “The panel accepts that the officer’s actions throughout were influenced by his disability and this provides an explanation for his actions. He has a disability that has affected his judgment and decision making and impacted on his actions.”
The panel’s outcome was to issue PC Poultney a final written warning which will be on record for three years. Derbyshire police was asked after the hearing if it could confirm PC Poultney’s disability but the force did not reveal it.
The force said: “It is right that the public have the confidence that officers will conduct themselves in a truthful, open and honest manner. It is clear that PC Poultney’s behaviour fell below that standard and he was taken to a gross misconduct hearing.
“At that hearing he admitted that his behaviour amounted to gross misconduct and the panel, led by the independent legally qualified chair, found that, on the balance of all the evidence heard, PC Poultney should be handed a final written warning.”
Derbyshire police was also asked why PC Poultney was tasked with leading the investigation at a time when he was struggling with the job.
The force added: “The incident for which PC Poultney was dealt with for gross misconduct took place during an initial period of tutoring. The purpose of the tutoring new officers is to give support, however, it is also incumbent on the new officer to seek support if there are issues with their knowledge or concerns about a case on which they are working.
“However, PC Poultney had received his diagnosis at the time of the incident and his tutors would not have been aware of the additional support that may have been required, or issues that they may have brought with it for PC Poultney.”
