Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Back to news
news
Crime & Legal
Policeman who told superiors he could no longer ride a bike skipped work for cycling holiday and competed in road racessa_calobra_via_youtube.jpg

Policeman who told superiors he could no longer ride a bike skipped work for cycling holiday and competed in road races

He was riding in Mallorca when he should have been on duty
by Alex Bowden
Fri, Apr 27, 2018 11:42
9

A police officer who told his bosses that he could no longer cycle or travel by plane due to a back problem was found to have skived work for a cycling holiday in Mallorca. Nick Corbett deleted his Strava account upon his return but was later convicted of gross misconduct.

MKCitizen reports how Corbett claimed a road traffic collision in 2014 had left him unable to ride a bike or board flights lasting more than 90 minutes.

On October 13 2017, he was meant to be on duty and was texted by his inspector to ask whether he was coming in. He responded citing his back problem, but it was later discovered that he was actually in Mallorca, where he was cycling.

Far from being unable to ride a bike, Corbett was it seems a keen cyclist and competed for the Milton Keynes-based Corley Cycles team.

Corbett resigned from Thames Valley Police (TVP) before a Police Medical Appeals Board hearing. The panel concluded he would have been dismissed had he still been a serving officer and his name will be placed on the College of Policing’s Barred List.

Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Ward, Head of the Professional Standards Department, commented: “I am sure most of TVP would agree that there is no room in this organisation for somebody who behaves as this former officer has. Thankfully the vast majority of our staff are hardworking and dedicated.

"Where we become aware of someone behaving in this way we will be relentless in carrying out a thorough investigation.”

Nick Corbett
Thames Valley Police
Mallorca
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

Add new comment

9 comments

Avatar
Chris Hayes | 6 years ago
3 likes

Evening all.  Resigning before being dismissed to avoid sanction is a particularly odious police practice.  High time it was stopped. 

Avatar
zero_trooper replied to Chris Hayes | 6 years ago
0 likes

Chris Hayes wrote:

Evening all.  Resigning before being dismissed to avoid sanction is a particularly odious police practice.  High time it was stopped. 

I thought that the law had changed and police officers can't resign prior to their hearing, if charged with gross misconduct (as opposed to 'vanilla' misconduct).

The above article has got things mixed up a bit - this is from the TVP press release:

The breaches were in connection with statements made by Mr Corbett in evidence to a Police Medical Appeals Board. He claimed he had injured his back during a road traffic collision in 2014 which limited his ability to ride a bicycle. He also claimed he was unable to board flights which were longer than 90 minutes.

So the gross misconduct is lying to a previous Police Medical Appeals Board, possibly IMO for compensation reasons or possibly to get some sort of medical restrictions on his posting.

 

Avatar
Simon E | 6 years ago
0 likes

A fine upstanding citizen, such a great role model for all young officers. smiley

May he live long and prosper, and continue to enjoy the good life with the very generous pension we taxpayers provide for him.

Or perhaps there's a future for him as a pro cyclist... though he'll probably be a DNS on the days when the weather's bad.

Avatar
Leviathan | 6 years ago
2 likes

The worst thing is he has had to delete his Strava account; years of PB's and routes lost, that's not worth a duvet day.

Avatar
Simmo72 | 6 years ago
2 likes

Who hasn't skived off in their life?  But only an idiot would record it on strava or another social media portal.  Sleep well criminals, the cops are as thick as you.

Avatar
burtthebike | 6 years ago
0 likes

Surely this is out and out fraud, so why is there no mention of prosecution?  A rather brief report but I'm sure we'll be reading lots more in the popular press with foot high headlines about skiving cyclist cop.

Avatar
dodgy | 6 years ago
0 likes

More detail here, including it was specifically Strava that caught him out.

https://www.euroweeklynews.com/news/on-euro-weekly-news/mallorca/1472454...

He is 52, presumably he will also lose his substantial pension (assuming he's served a few years) which is probably the worst part of this story for the guy.

Edit: Just done a little research, it's not a given that he will lose his pension.

 

Avatar
maviczap replied to dodgy | 6 years ago
1 like

dodgy wrote:

More detail here, including it was specifically Strava that caught him out.

https://www.euroweeklynews.com/news/on-euro-weekly-news/mallorca/1472454...

He is 52, presumably he will also lose his substantial pension (assuming he's served a few years) which is probably the worst part of this story for the guy.

Edit: Just done a little research, it's not a given that he will lose his pension.

 

Because he resigned rather than being dismissed, he'll keep his pension.

 

Avatar
zero_trooper replied to maviczap | 6 years ago
0 likes

maviczap wrote:

dodgy wrote:

More detail here, including it was specifically Strava that caught him out.

https://www.euroweeklynews.com/news/on-euro-weekly-news/mallorca/1472454...

He is 52, presumably he will also lose his substantial pension (assuming he's served a few years) which is probably the worst part of this story for the guy.

Edit: Just done a little research, it's not a given that he will lose his pension.

 

Because he resigned rather than being dismissed, he'll keep his pension.

 

IIRC he won't be able to draw it until he is 55, unless he retired on ill-health.

Which in the circumstances is highly unlikely 

Latest Comments