A POLICE officer has been sacked after misleading colleagues and carrying out work for a private firm behind his employer's back.

PC Simon Lofting, who worked for Essex Police's marine unit, has been dismissed without notice for gross misconduct by an independent misconduct panel.

The panel found that, between 2014 and 2015, Mr Lofting intentionally misled Essex Police officers about the purpose of a request for information.

The officer was volunteering for a private membership organisation during working time, against the instruction of a supervisor and despite assuring his superior he was not doing so.

The panel also heard Mr Lofting, in failing to register a business interest for a property he owned which was being privately rented, knowingly acted in a manner he knew to be wrong.

Mr Lofting's conduct had breached the standards of professional behaviour in terms of honesty and integrity, the independent panel concluded.

After the hearing, Assistant Chief Constable Carl O'Malley said: "Public trust in policing depends on the honesty and integrity of police officers being beyond reproach.

"We take breaches of professional standards extremely seriously.

"All officers and staff must understand that they must be honest at all times in their dealings with colleagues and the public.

"PC Lofting's conduct amounts to gross misconduct and fell well below the standard the public expects. In such cases dismissal is a regrettably a necessary sanction.”