West Mercia Police sergeant who falsified training record is banned from policing
A West Mercia Police firearms trainer would have been sacked if he had not retired, a misconduct hearing has ruled.
The officer is the second to be subject to serious misconduct proceedings in the space of a week.
The force said that Richard Cundy, 54, who was a firearms trainer based at the force’s headquarters in Hindlip, had "seriously breached the standards of professional behaviour in relation to honesty and integrity and duties and responsibility".
The misconduct hearing, chaired by the force's temporary chief constable, Alex Murray, heard how on December 5, 2022, Cundy had falsified his record to show he had completed training when he had not.
The discrepancy came to light on December 14, 2022, following a dip sample of lesson plans and records. As a result an investigation was launched by West Mercia Police’s professional standards department.
Cundy, who was a sergeant, retired from the force on December 15, 2023.
Temporary Chief Constable Alex Murray, said Cundy had served well through his career, but the offence was extremely serious.
He said: “You will have seen I have chaired a number of accelerated misconduct hearings in recent weeks. We continue to identify and take action against officer who have seriously breached the standards of professional behaviour.
“Richard Cundy will now be added to the College of Policing’s Barred List, barring him from working for a UK police service in the future.
“In this instance the officer had served well throughout his career, however, falsifying a training record is very serious and required the necessary sanction.”
Last week a West Mercia Police misconduct hearing heard how former officer Ethan Aherne, 28, had been caught playing rugby while off sick with a back injury.
In that instance the hearing concluded that had Aherne not already resigned, he would have been sacked.
