Northamptonshire Police officer skipped shift to attend wedding

Marcus Read resigned from Northamptonshire Police before his misconduct hearing could take place

A former police officer who called in sick to attend a colleague's wedding the next day was caught out when his line manager was at the same event.

Ex-Northamptonshire Police officer Marcus Read resigned before his misconduct hearing took place.

Mr Read had agreed to cover a colleague's shift but called the force's automated sickness line to say he would not be working.

The force said he would have been sacked had he not already quit.

Mr Read attended the wedding on 19 November last year but two days later his manager, who had seen and spoke to him at the celebration, noted he had not attended work as expected and had not been ill.

A meeting was held on 21 November and Mr Read quit the week after.

He admitted he had called in sick to attend the wedding and was told by managers how "angry" and "disappointed" they were with such a blatant disregard for professional standards.

The former officer did not attend a misconduct hearing held online on Wednesday.

He had been due to work on Operation Kayak, set up to tackle sexual offending at pubs, clubs and other venues, between 22:00 GMT and 06:00 on the day of the wedding.

Matt Moore, the Police Federation representative for Mr Read, said he had emailed and phoned the former officer in the run-up to the hearing but had received no response.The misconduct panel's chairman David Tyme said Mr Read's behaviour was premeditated and the risk of reputational damage to the force had he still been employed would have been high.