A Sussex Police officer has been sacked over failings linked to ammunition and a knife after a misconduct hearing that ended on Monday (20 July).
The force said today (Thursday 23 July): “A Sussex Police officer has been dismissed without notice for failing to store and record seized ammunition and a butterfly knife correctly while on duty at Gatwick.”
PC Oliver Kirkup was subject to a misconduct hearing which started last Wednesday 15 July and ended on Monday.
Sussex Police said: “It was alleged that between Monday 1 July 2024 and Thursday 29 August 2024, the officer failed to process and store correctly seized ammunition in line with policy and did not correctly record and complete the relevant paperwork for a seized butterfly knife.
“He was also challenged for not wearing his uniform hat and said that he had one on order.
“Then it was alleged five days later he falsely stated that the replacement hat he had ordered had been received.
“The allegations, apart from the two regarding not wearing his hat and making a false statement about it, were found proven at a misconduct hearing chaired by Assistant Chief Constable Peter Gardner.
“The hearing determined that the proven allegations amounted to breaches of the Standards of Professional Behaviour relating to orders and instructions, honesty and integrity and duties and responsibilities and that these breaches amounted to gross misconduct.
“He was dismissed without notice and will be added to the College of Policing ‘barred list’ which will prevent a return to policing.”
Superintendent Fash Mohammadi said: “The actions of this officer on these occasions were not in line with the values and standards that we expect, lacking honesty and integrity.
“All staff are aware of the Standards of Professional Behaviour and the force remains committed to holding officers to account where they fall below the high standards the public rightly expect.”
