PC who shared road accident information is jailed

Bell looked up confidential information on the police computer

A former police officer who shared confidential information about arrests and road accidents has been jailed.

Matthew Bell was a response officer for Northamptonshire Police.

The 38-year-old, of London End in Irchester, Northamptonshire, found the details on the police computer and gave them to friends and family.

He admitted a charge of misconduct in a public office and was sentenced on Friday at Southwark Crown Court to nine months in prison.

The force said people who misused information had "no place in the profession".

Northamptonshire Police said PC Bell shared details of incidents that were not available to the general public between September 2019 and June 2022.

An accelerated misconduct hearing was already held on Thursday, chaired by Paul Gibson, the chief constable of Lincolnshire Police.

He decided he would have been dismissed if he had still been a serving officer.

The Lincolnshire Chief Constable Paul Gibson chaired the misconduct hearing last week

Ch Insp Adam Pendlebury, from Northamptonshire Police’s professional standards department, said: “This information should be handled sensitively and accessed only when there is a legitimate policing purpose to do so.

"Anyone who misuses it or shares it with family and friends has no place in our profession.

“PC Bell’s offending took place over a long period of time, demonstrating a lack of integrity and undermining public confidence in policing."