Nottinghamshire Police officer misconduct over driver inquiry

A hearing took place at the Nottinghamshire Police headquarters in Arnold

A police officer is facing the sack for launching an investigation into a road incident that he was involved in.

PC Adam Bass began inquiries into a driver who claimed she had been "cut up" by him in Woodborough Road, Nottingham, while he was off-duty in May 2022.

He failed to mention his own involvement when he began a careless driving inquiry, a hearing was told.

A Nottinghamshire Police panel found PC Bass guilty of gross misconduct.

He was told he would be barred from policing at the misconduct proceedings, which were held before Chief Constable Kate Meynell at force headquarters in Arnold.

The hearing was told that as the road merged from two lanes to one, both PC Bass and the woman tried to assert their right of way and the officer pulled in front of the woman who sounded her horn, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

PC Bass then investigated the incident when he was back on duty and wrongly told the woman the incident had been caught on CCTV.

However this was not the case. CCTV was never recovered and the officer gave the "false impression" that CCTV footage of the incident existed, according to Liz Briggs who represented Nottinghamshire Police at the hearing.

The woman said she felt "intimidated" by the officer, who she claimed had "abused his position".

Nottinghamshire Police said there was a "clear and obvious conflict of interest" but the officer continued investigations until at least October 2022.

'Apologises genuinely'

Ms Briggs said: "The officer ought to have been aware there was a conflict, that despite the conflict he commenced and continued an investigation and failed to seek advice."

PC Bass argued he should have been supported better by his sergeant and had been working with a large caseload at the time, the LDRS said.

Insp Simon Riley, of the Police Federation, who represented PC Bass, said the supervision of the officer's investigation was "neither effective nor proactive".

He said: "It is worth repeating that the officer was a few short weeks out of his tutorship when the driving incident occurred.

"The officer apologises genuinely and wholeheartedly for the mistakes he made during the investigation.

"But that's what they were, mistakes."

Correction 6 March: This article originally reported that PC Bass falsely told the woman he had seen CCTV footage of what happened and was amended on the 16 January to instead say that he falsely told the woman that the incident had been caught on CCTV. It has since been amended again to clarify that PC Bass had wrongly told the woman the incident had been caught on CCTV and that police believe he gave a "false impression" that CCTV footage of the incident existed.