Cambridgeshire police officer sacked for scanning 7p carrots barcode when buying £9.95 Krispy Kreme doughnuts on duty
A Cambridgeshire police officer has been dismissed after scanning a 7p barcode for carrots at a supermarket instead of the correct £9.95 barcode for a packet of Krispy Kreme doughnuts he was buying while on duty.
PC Simon Read was found guilty of gross misconduct at a hearing today (Thursday November 26), despite claiming it was an “honest mistake”.
He told the hearing he did not realise he scanned the carrot barcode twice at the self-service tills at a Tesco Extra in Wisbech.
But he was deemed to have breached standards of professional behaviour in respect of honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct following the two-day conduct hearing and dismissed without notice.
Deputy Chief Constable Jane Gyford said: “The public should be able to trust that police officers in their duty will act with honesty and integrity at all times.
“We expect the highest standards from our officers, but PC Read’s conduct has been found to have fallen short of our expectations.
“I hope this outcome offers reassurance to our communities that our officers and staff will be held to account for their actions.”
Mr Read accepted that he failed to scan the barcode for the box of 12 doughnuts while purchasing four items at around 11.30am on February 10 this year – the donuts, carrots, a sandwich and a drink – but said this was not done on purpose.
Mr Read was in uniform at the time as he was on duty.
Asked if he intended to steal the doughnuts, he told the hearing on Wednesday at the East of England Showground in Peterborough: “Absolutely not, and I’m horrified we’re in this situation here today.”
He had only joined the force in January of this year and said he was buying the sweet treats for colleagues as a “cake fine”.
He told the hearing: “Cake fines are fairly common in the police. It’s a way of being punished in a light-hearted way.”
He said people could be given a “cake fine” if they were having a bad day, or if they were joining or leaving a department.
Mr Read said he was buying the carrots for his sergeant who was on a diet, and he thought it “would be funny” for them to be in a Krispy Kreme paper bag.
He said he stuck the carrots barcode onto the donut tray, as it would have spoiled the joke if he stuck it on the paper bag.
“I simply scanned where I believed the barcodes were and placed them down (in the bagging area),” he said. “I didn’t check the screen. I wish I had have done.
“I wish I had paid more attention to what was an ordinary experience – going to the shop, scanning some items and paying.”
He said he felt “embarrassed” by what happened, adding: “This has been a very long and lengthy nine months, not being at work when I should be.”
He said he took a receipt but did not look at it, adding: “I had no cause to.”
A manager at Tesco later alerted police to reports of a “suspicious police officer at its store” and the matter was investigated, Thursday’s hearing in Peterborough was told.
Lawyer Mark Ley-Morgan, putting the misconduct case, said: “He’s maintained from the outset this is all a horrible mistake, of him failing to pay attention while scanning his items.
“We say this is very unlikely to be the truth.”
Mr Ley-Morgan continued: “He would have had to be standing there with his eyes closed not to see what was happening on the screen in front of him.
“You have to tap the screen. You have to tap to check out, you have to tap to say if you want any bags, you have to say which method of payment you choose.
“Do you do that without looking at the screen?”
He went on: “It beggars belief that he wouldn’t at some point have seen he was being charged just over £4, knowing some moments before he picked up an item that cost a tenner.”
He said it was effectively “an officer effectively stealing while in uniform”.
“He was using his uniform as cover,” said Mr Ley-Morgan. “Who would be suspicious of a police officer?”
Sharmistha Michaels, the legally-qualified chair of the disciplinary panel, concluded: “On the balance of probabilities we are satisfied that Pc Read did intentionally scan the wrong barcode.”
While Mr Read claimed he had not checked the screen of the self-service till, CCTV showed him looking at it to select his method of payment, Ms Michaels said.
If it was a “genuine mistake” he had opportunities to put it right, she said, including when his contactless payment failed and he had to use chip and pin instead.
Ms Michaels said: “The officer’s behaviour has undermined public confidence in the police.”
She said his actions were “incompatible with his role as a police officer”.
Carolina Bracken, Mr Read’s lawyer, said he had an “unblemished career” before the incident and was involved in US President Donald Trump’s visit to Blenheim Palace and several royal weddings while serving with Thames Valley Police from 2008, based in Reading.
He was one of the officers involved in the case of PC Andrew Harper, who was dragged to his death by a getaway car in Berkshire in 2019, she added.
He served with the Royal Signals for five-and-a-half years before joining Cambridgeshire police in January of this year.
Ms Bracken said that the case weighed heavily on Mr Read and he had received prank calls in the night from people offering him doughnuts.
Mr Read has a right to appeal against the panel’s decision.
Additional reporting: Press Association
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Cambridgeshire will be in Tier 2 from December 2
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