Police officer accused of stealing biscuits

A police officer in Kingston, London, has been accused of 'lack of integrity' for taking a colleague's tin of biscuits and lying about it.
PC Thomas Hooper, a Metropolitan Police Constable, is now facing a tribunal for allegedly taking a two-tier tin of biscuits on 7 May, 2016, from a communal area which belonged to someone else and then denying the incident.

However, the constable has claimed that he took the biscuits with an intention to share and he also offered to replace them, according to reports in Sky News.

Charles Apthrop, representing the Metropolitan Police at the tribunal, said the matter related to whether or not he had breached professional standards.
"The appropriate authority's perspective is that it is not the value of what was taken, it is what was done. It shows clear evidence of misappropriation of property. The officer was aware it belonged to someone else and the officer has taken it."

When asked, the then inspector Sarah Blake handling the case told that the matter was referred to Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) considering the 'gravity of the incident'. Blake added that 'theft is theft' and the offer made by the constable to replace the biscuits was baseless as he had already eaten them. "How was he going to put the biscuits back," asked Blake.

The constable has denied the allegation of breaching professional standards. Besides, he is also accused of getting a fixed penalty notice cancelled which was issued to him for travelling at 51mph in a 30mph zone.

Hooper claimed that he was transporting a male patient from a mental health unit to the station in Kingston, south west London, when the air conditioning stopped working. He said it was a health hazard because the patient had already been sick.

However, he is accused of lying about both the biscuit and the driving incidents.