A volunteer police officer who lied about his qualifications to gain access to a patrol vehicle has been found guilty of gross misconduct.

Special constable Thomas Ryder was found to have breached the standards of professional behaviour at a misconduct hearing.

At the hearing at Kent Police headquarters in Maidstone, the panel heard how Ryder lied to a supervisor about his level of training on two separate occasions.

A special constable is a volunteer police officer with full police power and equipment who supports officers.

To qualify, the role requires a set amount of training, as does driving a police vehicle.

But the hearing heard Ryder gained access to a marked Vauxhall Astra at the police station in Ashford after lying about his qualifications to a supervisor on the night of March 13 last year.

Speaking on behalf of the authority, David Messling said Ryder "did not have – and knew he did not have – the required training and qualifications" to go out on patrol on his own.

Despite this, Ryder, who did not attend yesterday's hearing, went on to take out a marked vehicle a second time on March 19, despite having cancelled a training shift earlier that day to "attend to personal matters".

Alarmingly, a special constable working as a dispatch officer in Folkestone noted Ryder's number as responding to a missing person's investigation that night – despite not being qualified to do so.

After deliberating for just 30 minutes, the panel, led by chair John Bassett, decided Ryder's actions constituted gross misconduct.

Had he not already resigned from the force on August 3 last year, the panel ruled he would have been dismissed without notice.

He has been placed on the police barred register.

Superintendent John Phillips, of Kent Police’s professional standards department, said: "We have a thorough training requirement for all new recruits to ensure that officers are capable of dealing professionally with a range of incidents before they patrol alone.

"In this case a new recruit wilfully ignored those procedures exposing the public and the organisation to serious risk."

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