Officer who stole van battery after crash guilty of gross misconduct
A former Dyfed-Powys Police officer who stole a battery from a crashed car has been placed on the College of Policing barred list following an accelerated misconduct hearing.
On Saturday January 23, 2021, while on duty, Oliver George West attended the scene of a road traffic collision on the Pembrey to Trimsaran road in Carmarthenshire.
While at the scene the former officer removed the battery, which was worth £254, from the vehicle involved in the collision without any permission from the owners or any lawful policing authority or purpose and took it home for his own personal use.
The matter was brought to the attention of the officer’s supervisors the following month and an investigation was launched by the force’s Professional Standards Department, which resulted in the officer being suspended from duty on February 11.
West was charged with an offence of theft from a motor vehicle and pleaded guilty to the offence at on July 1.
He was sentenced at Swansea Magistrates’ Court on July 30 where he was given a community order and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £85 costs and a £95 victim surcharge fee.
West resigned from the force shortly before his court appearance and on September 2 he appeared before an ‘Accelerated Misconduct Hearing’ chaired by Temporary Chief Constable Claire Parmenter.
He admitted gross misconduct and the chair found that the former officer would have been dismissed had he still been a member of the police force.
As a result, he will now be placed on the College of Policing barred list which will prevent him from being employed in any police force or other specified law enforcement body in the future.
