Ex-Northamptonshire Police officer sentenced for data offences

Before his court case, Gareth Cox had already been found guilty of four gross misconduct allegations at a police disciplinary hearing

A former police officer has been given a suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to data offences.

Gareth Cox, 49, resigned from Northamptonshire Police on 31 August.

On Tuesday, he was was given an eight-week suspended sentence at Leicester Magistrates' Court after admitting six data offences.

He has also been formally dismissed from the force after having sex with two women, on separate occasions, while on duty.

At the criminal court hearings, Cox admitted one charge of causing a computer to perform a function to secure/enable unauthorised access to a program/data, an offence contrary to Computer Misuse Act 1990.

He also pleaded guilty to five charges of knowingly/recklessly obtaining or disclosing personal data without the consent of the controller, contrary to the Data Protection Act 2018.

Sentencing him, district judge Watson said the data offences were a "gross breach of trust and there had been harm to public confidence".

Cox, of Brixworth in Northamptonshire, was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the community, and he must wear an electronic tag so the authorities can monitor his compliance with a 21:00-07:00 curfew.

'Sexual relations on duty'

In September, Cox was found guilty of four gross misconduct allegations at a police misconduct hearing, Northamptonshire Police said.

The force said the allegations included having sexual relations with two separate females while on duty, disclosing confidential information to a third party, creating diary entries deliberately intended to mislead his bosses about his whereabouts on duty and using police premises and a police vehicle to facilitate meetings with the women.

The force said Cox resigned as a police constable on 31 August, and at the misconduct hearing he was formally dismissed and added to the barred list.

Det Sgt Sarah Osborne said the case showed that "any officer or member of staff risks full criminal proceedings - including potential custody - if they are found to have disclosed confidential data deliberately."

"Where we suspect officers or staff have not lived up to the high standards that the public should expect, they will be investigated in relation to any potential misconduct," she said.