Telford police officer gave wife fake art print then called Radio One to 'boast' about deception years later

A gross misconduct hearing in April found Robert Hall had breached “honesty and integrity” standards and committed “discreditable conduct”, and ruled he would have been dismissed had he not resigned six months before.

Mr Hall, who has since remarried and has children, served with West Mercia Police for 16 years and finished his career at the rank of Detective Constable based in Telford.

His appeal argued that panel’s dismissal decision was unreasonable and that the two actions, five years apart, should not have been treated together and as gross misconduct. The panel reserved judgment until later this month.

Simon Walsh, responding on behalf of West Mercia Police, recapped part of the previous case, saying that, in 2012, Mr Hall gave his then wife a copied version of an art print and kept the original and its accompanying certificate of authenticity.

Mr Walsh quoted a transcript of the April hearing where the ex-DC was asked: “When you told you wife that the certificate of authenticity had been lost, you were lying, weren’t you?'”

Mr Hall replied “yes”, Mr Walsh added.

Nicholas Walker, representing Mr Hall, quoted the panel’s previous decision, saying the deception was revealed “in the light of his decision to boast about his misconduct to his colleagues and on Radio One.”

He added that Mr Hall, who could not attend the appeal hearing due to a work commitment, called the radio station in 2017, spoke to a researcher and was later interviewed for broadcast, but at no point identified himself as a serving police officer.

Spontaneous

Mr Walker said the original case should not have been heard as “gross misconduct”, a charge he described as the “nuclear option”.

Panel chairman Samuel Stein QC said: “I supposed you are saying that the original 2012 action was misconduct, but not that serious, then the actions five years later are misconduct more serious than 2012 but not into the serious range and still not ‘gross misconduct’.”

Mr Walker agreed with this summary of the argument, and added that Mr Hall’s actions in 2012 were “spontaneous” and provoked by the behaviour of his wife, who was a Detective Constable at the time.

“The April panel expressed, in terms, complete understanding and I would say sympathy with the situation this former officer found himself in,” he said.

But Mr Walsh said the act of making the phone call to the radio station five years later, not having owned up and apologised to his ex-wife in the meantime, linked the two incidents together and showed a lack of remorse or contrition.

Mr Walsh said: “He didn’t say ‘This has been going on for five years, the print on the wall, I’m sorry, is not real, and here is the certificate of authenticity’.

“No. This officer decided to boast about what he did on the radio.”

Mr Stein told the Police Appeals Tribunal hearing – held at West Mercia Police headquarters at Hindlip Hall, near Worcester – that his three-person panel would not be able to provide a ruling within a day, but said one would be published online within 21 days.