Northamptonshire Police officer called in sick to attend colleague's wedding

A police officer who called in sick to attend a colleague's wedding was caught out when his line manager was at the same event.

Former Northamptonshire Police officer, PC Marcus Read, had agreed to cover a colleague's shift, but called in sick the day before the wedding.

He saw and spoke to his line manager at the wedding last November.

Two days later, his manager noted he had not attended work as expected and had not been ill.

Mr Read quit the week after.

He admitted he had called in sick to attend the wedding and was told by managers how “angry” and “disappointed” they were with such a blatant disregard for professional standards.

On the day he called in sick, the former office was supposed to be working on an overnight operation to tackle sexual offendings at pubs and bars, a misconduct hearing on Wednesday heard.

Mr Read did not attend the hearing.

The panel - which included the police force’s head of crime and justice, Det Ch Supt Paul Rymarz - found Mr Read would have been sacked had he still been an officer.

The panel’s chairman David Tyme said his behaviour was premeditated and there would've been a high risk of reputational damage to the force.

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