A POLICE officer has been dismissed without notice after buying and selling rugby match tickets and taking a secondary job as a chauffeur.

A misconduct hearing at Cumbria Police headquarters at Carleton Hall, Penrith, heard Ulverston-based PC Shane Wheeler obtained monies from people for rugby tickets, which he either did not supply or refund the cash, despite being requested to do so.

PC Wheeler did supply some tickets but in some cases failed to refund the difference between the monies originally paid to him and the actual ticket price.

Other people have received cheques from PC 1501 Wheeler but when presented they have not been honoured. He also obtained tickets from persons, which he did not pay for.

The panel heard PC Wheeler used his position as an officer to indicate he was trustworthy in order to obtain rugby tickets.

The panel was told PC Wheeler carried out work as a chauffeur without first obtaining authority from Cumbria Constabulary, in breach of the Constabulary’s Policy regarding Business Interests and Additional Occupations.

The misconduct panel was told that he had been arrested on suspicion of fraud on February 2018 but the Crown Prosecution Service decided he had not been dishonest and no further action was taken.

Simon Walsh, counsel for the Chief Constable, said his breaches of the force rules was extensive and serious.

“He did not keep good records and his personal finances and the rugby enterprise became mixed,” said Mr Walsh.

“He misused his status as a police officer by using a photograph of himself in uniform on a business card, as so breached professional standards."

In February 2017 he had been advised by Detective Chief Superintendent Rob O’Connor to stop selling the rugby tickets, but ignored that order, added Mr Walsh.

But Eva Niculiu, for PC Wheeler, said he had complied with what Mr O’Connor advised, including stopping using the force e-mail system to advertise rugby tickets.

“For 25 years he has been running not a business, but an enterprise that has brought joy and pleasure to hundreds, if not more, people who have been given opportunities they would not otherwise have had,” she said.

“These people kept coming back because what he was providing was generous. What he did was out of the goodness of his heart."

He would buy tickets for up to £300 in advance and then sell them at face value to his contacts.

Early in 2018 he suffered two bereavements and then he had been arrested, just as tickets should have been arriving for the Six Nations rugby tournament.

“That is when it all blew up and he became a victim of his own success,” said Ms Niculiu.

Thirteen of the twenty complaints made to Cumbria Police about PC Wheeler referred to the Spring of 2018 when refunds fell behind due to him being arrested, she added.

"There was no personal advantage. He was conferring an advantage on others by advising people he would obtain rugby tickets," said Ms Niculiu.

“The link between his rugby endeavours and Cumbria Police was pre-existing and tolerated and even encouraged."

Mr Walsh had earlier said PC Wheeler had been told by a colleague that a wealthy local businessman had wanted a second chauffeur. At the interview he confessed to being in debt.

The businessman loaned PC Wheeler £12,700 which he was to pay back by working for him.

Ms Niculiu said PC Wheeler had done everything required, including getting his superior to help him fill out an application form for permission to take the job. That application form was later lost. PC Wheeler was found to have breached standards of honesty and integrity, and discreditable conduct, said panel chair Paul Foster.

On orders and instructions, PC Wheeler was cleared of breaching standards by not following instructions of Det Ch Supt O’Connor, due to ambiguity. But he was in breach of orders by taking the secondary job.

“PC Wheeler’s behaviour did amount to gross misconduct,” concluded Mr Foster.