A POLICE constable with Avon and Somerset Police has been sacked after using his position to try to split up a married couple.

PC Tony Gillard attempted to frame a man in a bid to convince his wife to leave him, a disciplinary hearing was told.

Gillard struck up a relationshiop with Mrs H following the breakdown of his own marriage and after they had told each other their "deepest and darkest" secrets.

But when Mrs H decided to give it another go with her husband, Gillard tried to sabotage their relationship.

He used the force computer to track down Mr H and performed several "high-risk" checks on his car over six months in 2014 by pulling him over.

A misconduct hearing at police HQ was told that Gillard had breached the standards of professional behaviour for police officers of honesty and integrity; discreditable conduct; authority, respect and courtesy; and confidentiality.

The panel found that the searches Gillard carried out on force computer systems were on the balance of probabilities not made for an extant policing purpose.

He was judged to have carried out searches of the Automatic Number Plate Recognition and/or the PNC for personal reasons connected to his relationship with Mrs H.

The length of time over which the searches were made, the lack of any specifically identifiable criminal offence being investigated and absence of any supervisory or other input by other officers into the supposed investigation indicated that the searches were not for a legitimate policing purpose, the hearing concluded.

It also ruled that the searches were conducted for a personal purpose connected with his relationship with Mrs H.

And it further concluded that the searches, PNC checks and Storm log creation carried out between April 4 and April 30 last year were not made for a legitimate police purpose.

The panel decided that the failure by Gillard to notify any colleague or supervising officer of his personal connection to Mr H can only be explained by a desire to conceal his real motivation.

It was deemed inconceivable that an officer of more than 20 years’ experience would not recognise the inherent conflict of interest.

After Mr H's car was identified, two searches were made, one of them while Gillard was in text communication with Mrs H.

He also wrote in his police notebook that  the information that led to the entry being created was from an anonymous source when in fact the information on which he purported to rely came from Mrs H.

He then left his shift having handed the log onto another officer without telling him the full circumstances surrounding its background hoping that Mr H would be arrested by another officer.

The panel, in reaching its conclusions took into account the admitted behaviour of the officer in that he telephoned Mr H and discussed with him his domestic circumstances and also that he took and attempted to send to Mrs H a photograph of Mr H with an anonymous woman.

The panel took the view that this behaviour was illustrative of his desire to adversely influence the relationship between Mr and Mrs H and has helped to inform the panel’s findings of fact.

It also found that the searches were for a personal purpose and were created for the purpose of harassing Mr H.

The panel found that the allegations against PC Tony Gillard were proven as gross misconduct and that he be dismissed without notice.