Northamptonshire police officer dismissed for being on duty over drink drive limit

PC Wendy Bruce had drunk two bottles of red wine the night before - finishing at 10.30pm - when she was reported to a superior by a colleague who had smelt alcohol on her breath on October 21.

On response duties for the day, she was driven from Rushden police station to Wellingborough.

However PC Bruce was asked to perform a roadside breath test and, when it showed she was over the limit, was arrested.

At the police station, she performed a second test, the lower reading for which was below the drink drive limit, meaning she had not broken the law.

However, Chief Constable Simon Edens, who was presiding over the hearing at Wootton Hall this afternoon, said she was guilty of gross misconduct and the risk she had presented to the public and colleagues meant he had decided to dismiss her without notice.

He said: “If she had been called out on a 999 call, she would have been driving a police car with all the risks to the public that entails.

“She put herself in a position where carrying on as an officer was untenable.”