Ex-police officer lied her parents had died

A former Thames Valley Police (TVP) officer who told "reprehensible" lies that both her parents had died would have been sacked had she not quit, a panel found.

The woman, who has not been publicly named, told managers her father had died in October 2021 and that her mother died after receiving palliative care in April 2022.

At the end of that month, the former police constable told a supervisor that she was going to attend her mother's wake, "in the full knowledge" she had not died.

The panel said the former officer "appears to be suffering mental health problems" and that she told police staff the "nature of her work" and a recent breakup were reasons for her behaviour.

TVP said she was given permission to miss training in April 2022 after she falsely declared her mother's death.

After she told managers in December 2022 that she "wasn't coping well" and would be alone for Christmas following her parents' deaths, she took just over a month's sick leave.

On her return, she was placed on light duties and then took another spell of sick leave between 8 February and 26 March 2023.

The former officer did not attend a hearing at TVP's headquarters in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, earlier this month.

The panel said the woman's actions were "deliberate, intentional and planned".

"Her actions amounted to a sustained period of dishonesty, lying to supervisory officers on a number of occasions and such lies were made all the more reprehensible by falsely claiming first illness and then the death of both parents," it said.

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