Lincolnshire PC Mick Colbourne fired for Gestapo comment

PC Michael Colbourne was dismissed without notice following a three-day hearing

A police officer who compared working with colleagues to being in the Gestapo and branded transgender children's parents as "lunatics" has been fired.

PC Mick Colbourne, 56, was found to be in breach of the standards of professional behaviour following a three-day misconduct hearing.

The officer admitted making the comments but denied making a Nazi salute at a Lincoln police station.

He was dismissed without notice, on Friday.

The hearing at Lincolnshire Police's headquarters, in Nettleham, was told he made the comments while working in the traffic process office between December 2018 and 17 January 2019.

Giving evidence, PC Colbourne said he was in the office chatting when a member of staff said, 'You had better get out or you'll be in trouble'.

"As I walked out I said it's like working with the Gestapo," he said.

"That was said because of the secret gathering of information on me."

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But PC Colbourne denied giving a Nazi salute and said it was "a wave goodbye" after he was dismissed from the traffic unit at the West Parade police station, that was "misinterpreted".

On another occasion, he was accused of making derogatory remarks about transgender children, suggesting their parents should be lined up and shot.

"I'm not bigoted. I didn't say transgender, transvestites or gender fluid people are lunatics," he told the hearing.

"The only people I call lunatics are the parents."

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The panel heard the officer was already on a final written warning following a previous inappropriate comment and had been served with a "work improvement notice", which referred to him as "disruptive, ill-mannered and belligerent".

Det Supt Suzanne Davies, Head of Professional Standards, said: "Police officers hold extraordinary trust and powers; we must be beyond reproach.

"The panel found PC Mick Colbourne's conduct breached those standards and this amounted to misconduct."