Drink-driving Kettering community police officer quit before she was sacked

A Northamptonshire Police officer who crashed a car when she was nearly three times over the drink-drive limit quit before she would have been sacked.

Former PC Rachel Cantwell, 27, crashed a Suzuki Vitara in Silver Lane, West Challow, Oxfordshire, on Sunday, December 11, 2022.

A misconduct hearing heard Cantwell, a neighbourhood officer based in Kettering, repeatedly told Thames Valley Police officers she had not been drinking.

They had been called to the crash scene by a member of the public following the accident at about 6pm.

Tests found Cantwell, from Horninghold in Leicestershire, had 99 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms. She was arrested and two further samples gave readings of 100 and 97 micrograms respectively.

Cantwell admitted drink-driving at a hearing at Oxford Magistrates’ Court in December. She was banned from driving for 23 months and made the subject of an 18-month community order at the same court on Thursday, January 19.

Cantwell did not attend Monday’s hearing. David Ring, for the force, said that her telling officers she had not been drinking was “plainly untrue” and that she had only avoided hurting anyone “by chance”.

Northamptonshire Police’s temporary chief constable Paul Gibson heard personal mitigation on Cantwell’s behalf in private. Dr Gibson later said he had been told of mental health issues Cantwell had been suffering from at the time.

He said while he had sympathy with those, Cantwell had lied to officers after the crash and had not upheld the law.

He said had Cantwell not resigned ahead of the hearing, she would have been sacked without notice. She will be placed on the College of Policing’s barred list.