PC sacked for taking snacks from crime scene

A police officer has been sacked for taking energy drinks and snacks from a crime scene.

PC Andrew Cookson stole several bags of items from a cannabis factory which had been discovered in a former bus depot in Gainsborough in January 2024, a Lincolnshire Police disciplinary panel ruled.

The hearing was told crime scene photographs showed large numbers of drinks and food in the drugs factory's living quarters which had disappeared the next day.

CCTV footage showed Cookson returned to a Lincoln police station with two large supermarket bags which he transferred from a police van to his car.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the officer claimed this was his police kit smelling of cannabis which he was taking home to wash, but the panel concluded it was stolen items from the crime scene.

While the panel found that theft of drinks and sweets had not harmed the investigation, they said it could undermine the public's trust in the police.

It also found that Cookson had breached the standards for honesty, integrity and discreditable conduct, which amounted to gross misconduct.

He was dismissed without notice and will be placed on the barred list for police forces.

Cookson, who had worked for the force for nearly 24 years, maintained his innocence, saying he did not know who had taken the items.

His representative told the hearing that Cookson suggested other people may have been hiding in the large cannabis factory and had stolen the items.

"Would someone throw away a 20-plus year career for cans of pop, sweeties and detergent?," he added.

Assistant Chief Constable Kate Anderson, who chaired the panel, described his explanation as "implausible" and said all the evidence pointed to Cookson being the culprit

"He was deliberately dishonest, removing items from the scene of the crime," she said.

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