Vetting 'to be improved' after police chief sacking

Former Northamptonshire Police Chief Constable Nick Adderley was sacked following a gross misconduct hearing

The investigation into a chief constable who was later found to have lied about his career has led to better-enforced vetting checks, a police commissioner said.

Nick Adderley, of Northamptonshire Police, was sacked when he was found to have invented key details of his Royal Navy service.

The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) for the county, Danielle Stone, told the police, fire and crime panel the case was "shocking".

However, she added the Home Office had told her "from now on all qualifications are going to be checked during the vetting".

A gross misconduct hearing in June heard how the former chief constable had claimed to have served in the Falklands War in 1982, despite being aged only 15 at the time of the conflict.

He also lied on his CV about his length of Royal Navy service and attending officer training, as well as wearing a South Atlantic Medal to which he was not entitled.

Danielle Stone said Northampton Police was working on the appointment of a new Chief Constable

Ms Stone, a Labour PFCC, said her team had been in touch with the Home Office and the College of Policing to share the findings of the investigation into vetting procedures.

She told the panel on Thursday the vetting Mr Adderley has been "a terrible story", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Ms Stone said the new checks on qualifications would "not just [be] in our police force but across the country".

"Out of something terrible, because of the work that we have done, we are setting the standard for what's going on in the rest of the country," she said.

She said that high-level vetting of senior officers in the force had since been re-checked by the acting chief constable and no issues were found.

Ms Stone also told the panel that her office was in the process of working on the appointment of a new permanent chief constable and there would be an update before the end of October.