Cleveland Police officer who made false incident report is dismissed

A Cleveland Police officer who made a false and misleading report of an incident involving a woman who was later the victim of a domestic assault has been dismissed without notice following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

PC Robert Coffey failed to properly investigate or record an incident in Hartlepool town centre, hours before the assault. Our investigation found he did not take the necessary steps to safeguard the woman at that time.

At a misconduct hearing, which concluded today (22 November), he was found to have breached the police standards of professional behaviour for duties and responsibilities; discreditable conduct; and honesty and integrity. He will be barred from working in policing in future.

IOPC Regional Director Emily Barry said: “PC Coffey’s mistakes in dealing with the initial incident were compounded by his decisions first not to make a record of it and then to try and cover it up.

“His dishonesty betrayed the trust placed in the police by members of the public and risked undermining the hard work of his colleagues.

“I would like to commend the actions of a more junior officer for raising their concerns about his actions. Their integrity ensured PC Coffey faced a thorough investigation and has now been held accountable.”

Our independent investigation followed a referral from the force in April 2019 and concluded in December 2019.

We found PC Coffey was on duty in Hartlepool town centre in the evening of 23 March 2019 when a member of the public reported seeing a couple fighting.

He spoke to the pair, who both appeared to have suffered injuries, and took the woman home – but failed to carry out a proper investigation or report the incident to colleagues. He made no record of the incident at the time.

In the early hours of the following morning, police were called to the woman’s address, where she was found with facial injuries. She was taken to hospital and the man she had been with the evening before was arrested for assault.

Following that call to police, PC Coffey made an entry on the force computer system for the incident the previous evening. However, we found this did not accurately reflect the situation and considered it to be misleading.

On conclusion of the investigation, we found PC Coffey had a case to answer for gross misconduct, and Cleveland Police agreed.

We also referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service, which decided in May 2020 to charge PC Coffey with corrupt or improper exercise of police powers. He denied this and a trial, which had been due to take place in November 2021 but was relisted three times, went ahead in June 2023.

During the hearing, the CPS made the decision to withdraw the prosecution against PC Coffey.

Following the conclusion of the criminal proceedings, Cleveland Police made arrangements for the misconduct hearing.