Successful Appeal in Police Appeals Tribunal

Allan Compton successfully represented PC JJ at the Police Appeals Tribunal on 20th July 2017. She had been dismissed for gross misconduct at a police disciplinary hearing following allegations that she had lied about the search of the A12 in Essex for a drunk pedestrian who was subsequently struck by a lorry and killed.

The Appeal Tribunal ruled that the original Tribunal had been improperly constituted because of the presence of a senior employee of Essex Police on the panel in place of a serving police officer. The Tribunal ruled that the definition in the Police Misconduct Regulations of ‘member of the force of rank of superintendent or above’ did not extend to a senior employee with an ‘equivalent rank’. The officer has now been reinstated and the case has been remitted for consideration at a rehearing.

Mr Compton was instructed by Russell Haldane of Taylor Haldane Barlex solicitors.