Police officer quit before sack over drink driving

Former PC Rachel Cantwell was arrested after her car left the road, mounted an embankment and rolled on its side

A police officer banned from driving after she crashed a car while nearly three times over the drink-drive limit quit her job before she would have been sacked.

Former PC Rachel Cantwell, of Northamptonshire Police, was off-duty on 11 December when the car left the road.

She lost her licence after admitting drink-driving at Oxford Magistrates' Court in December.

Following a disciplinary hearing, the 27-year-old has also been placed on the College of Policing's barred list.

Cantwell, who lives in Horninghold, Leicestershire, was off-duty and driving a Suzuki Vitara along Silver Lane, West Challow, near Wantage in Oxfordshire.

She was breathalysed at the scene and had 99 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

After she was arrested she gave two further samples with readings of 100 and 97 micrograms.

She was banned from driving for 23 months and made the subject of an 18-month community order at the court on Thursday, 19 January.

Cantwell did not attend Monday's hearing chaired by Northamptonshire Police's temporary chief constable Paul Gibson, the Local Democracy Report Service said.

Mr Gibson said while he had sympathy with the mental health issues Cantwell had been suffering from at the time, she had lied to officers after the crash and had not upheld the law.

He said had Cantwell not resigned ahead of the hearing she would have been sacked without notice.