The panel concluded that Officer’s A’s actions were dishonest.

A Shropshire police officer who bullied a student he was tutoring and lied about serving in Afghanistan has been sacked.

The unnamed officer (referred to as Officer A) behaved in an “abusive, hostile, oppressive, derogatory, intimidating and/or bullying manner” towards the colleague between March and April 2024.

The Bridgnorth-based officer also lied to an inspector in an attempt to influence her decision after she was looking to move him to Market Drayton.

He told her about personal issues he was experiencing, and his work was somewhere where he could escape to, with his colleagues “being his rock”.

Officer A also said he served in Afghanistan and had “shot three people”.

However, he was found out when his superiors were informed by the military that he had never been deployed there.

Officer A’s actions were deemed as gross misconduct, and he has been dismissed from West Mercia Police without notice.

A four-day hearing held at the force’s headquarters in Hindlip, Worcestershire, heard that the officer was a former teacher who had aspirations of being an authorised firearms officer.

However, tensions arose between him and another officer, who he was tutoring. One incident occurred on April 25, 2024, when Officer A questioned how his colleague handled a domestic abuse call in Highley the previous day.

Officer A showed her body-worn footage of what happened, with the panel concluding that it was likely that he swore at the mature student during the altercation.

The panel heard that the student lacked confidence when it came to physical contact and was reluctant “to get her hands dirty”.

One officer, who attended the incident in Highley at the time, said he got on with Officer A and was unaware of any previous incidents of alleged bullying.

However, he explained that Officer A should have gone to him if he did not like the way his colleague handled situations, due to him stepping in at times to effectively lead the team.

The panel agreed that, if Officer A was not happy with how his colleague handled the situation, the matter should have been handled in private and not in public, in earshot of other staff members.

Inspector Deborah Bentley explained that Officer A came to speak to her on May 16, 2024. This, she said, was because he was told by his sergeant that concerns had been raised by a colleague about Officer A’s alleged conduct.

This, said Inspector Bentley, included Officer A whispering to a colleague, “I’m going to bully her out a job” – something which the victim reportedly heard.

The hearing heard that there were other incidents where Officer A was likely to have sworn at the student. The panel found that most of the charges that the officer faced were proved.

However, they did not find that Officer A called his colleague “a b**ch” and demanded he made her a cup of tea.

Representing West Mercia Police, Adam Keenaghan read out a victim statement on behalf of the student officer.

She said she felt deflated and embarrassed, with the situation having a traumatic impact on her self esteem. After a moment of reflection, the victim therefore handed in her notice in February 2025.

“His behaviour, especially on April 25, 2024, was a deliberate attempt to effectively bully her out a job,” said Mr Keenaghan.

Representing Officer A, Sarah Allen said her client’s actions were born out of frustration and he lacked the required skills to deal with the situation in a better way.

“The panel felt he did not deal with it appropriately and he accepts that,” said Ms Allen, adding that he apologised to the victim straight away.

“He is not a bad person or a bad officer.”

It was concluded that Officer A sought to influence Inspector Bentley in changing her mind when she was looking to move him to Market Drayton.

Inspector Bentley said that, because of the allegations made, and the fact that that Officer A had developed a romantic relationship with another member in his team, it was the right decision.

However, she told the hearing that Officer A’s demeanour changed.

“I felt we were having a good discussion, but he became upset and looked at the floor,” said Inspector Bentley.

“I thought he was about to cry.”

That was when Officer A mentioned to her about his time serving in Afghanistan, leading to Inspector Bentley changing her decision, telling Officer A he could stay in Bridgnorth and receive the necessary support.

However, the officer was never deployed to Afghanistan. In mitigation, Ms Allen said her client panicked and didn’t use the experiences that he had heard from another colleague to influence Inspector Bentley’s decision.

However, the panel concluded that Officer’s A’s actions were dishonest.

“Due to the seriousness of the offences, the only outcome was for Officer A to be dismissed without notice,” said Deputy Chief Constable Damian Barratt.