Two South Yorkshire Police officers convicted of drink driving resigned before they could be sacked

Police Constable (PC) Olivia Horn was brought before Huddersfield Magistrates’ Court on January 26, 2023, when she pleaded guilty to the offence of driving a motor vehicle whilst over the prescribed limit for alcohol.

Just over a fortnight later, Thomas Asquith was convicted of the same offence during a hearing held at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court on February 16, 2023, after entering a guilty plea.

Accelerated misconduct hearings were held for both police constables last month, and PC Horn and PC Asquith both resigned beforehand.

As a consequence, neither PC Horn or PC Asquith were required to attend their misconduct hearing, and both were held in their absence.

According to documents published by South Yorkshire Police, the misconduct panel in both cases found the officers had breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour through their drink-driving convictions, which amounted to gross misconduct.

The documents also state that both PCs ‘would have been dismissed without notice,’ had they not resigned.

Guidance on misconduct hearings from the Court and Tribunal Judiciary states that misconduct panels should be comprised of 'a legally qualified chair, a senior police officer – usually a Superintendent or Chief Superintendent – and a lay person'. That requirement has been in place since 2012.

The Home Office published new guidance on police pension forfeiture in 2021.

It states that pension forfeiture applications can be made by the Pension Supervising Authorities (PSA) where they consider that the requirements in the Police Pensions Schemes are met, namely, where a police officer, or former police officer who is, or was, a member of a police pension scheme has been convicted of a criminal offence committed in connection with their service as a member of a police force, and the offence has been certified by the Secretary of State as either: ‘liable to lead to a serious loss of confidence in the public service; or gravely injurious to the interests of the State’.

The documents do not state whether pension forfeiture applications will be made in the cases of PC Horn and PC Asquith.