Cop bought booze for underage worker and turned blind eye to weed

A police officer who bought booze for an underage teenager and failed to act when he knew a friend was in possession of cannabis has been told he would have been fired if he was still employed by the force. Officer Paul Clarke was the subject of a Nottinghamshire Police misconduct hearing at the force’s Sherwood Lodge headquarters on Friday, November 29.

The hearing heard how Officer Clarke ran a fish and chip shop in addition to his duties as a police officer and, after a shift on March 11, 2023, took a number of colleagues to a pub in Newark. One of these colleagues, known only as Person B, was 16 years of age.

While at the pub - the Tambo Lounge in the town centre - PC Clarke bought a number of drinks for the girl, including cocktails, despite knowing she was underage due to employing her at his chip shop. He admitted to this before the hearing began.

But, later on that night, he drove both the girl and a female over the age of 18, known only as person A and who had also been at the pub with them, to a BP fuel garage. While there, person A, who had consumed a number of alcoholic drinks at the pub, attempted to buy some Rizla rolling papers from the shop.

But the shopkeeper refused to serve her because she had no ID. She then started “smashing up” the shop, leading the shopkeeper to press an emergency button on the wall which alerted the police.

When officers arrived and arrested her, they found a tub containing cannabis in her pocket. It was during investigations into this that police found CCTV footage from the pub of Person A putting a receptacle, said to be the one containing the cannabis, under PC Clarke’s nose.

The hearing heard that, as an experienced officer, PC Clarke would have recognised the distinct smell of cannabis and known that was what the tub contained. Person A and B’s witness statements said that everybody at the table knew that the tub contained cannabis.

But while Mr Clarke admitted buying drinks for the girl, he denied knowing Person A had cannabis on her. He argued that he did not know she was a cannabis smoker, and also that she had been “putting stuff under my nose all night".

Having been medically discharged from the force since the incident, PC Clarke, who along with other witnesses wasn’t present at the hearing, also argued that he would have no reason to deny the claim if it was true, as he was never going to work in the police force again and therefore had no career to salvage. Finally, he argued that, having been involved in restraining Person A and keeping her in his car until police arrived at the petrol station, he had been "doing the right thing" as a police officer, and would have done the same if he knew she was in possession of cannabis

But a panel found that he did know the the tub contained cannabis and failed to act, amounting to gross misconduct. They also found that his buying of drinks for the girl amounted to gross misconduct.

Representing PC Clarke, inspector Simon Ridley said: “He knows that he didn’t do the right thing in buying drinks for the girl and for that he apologises.”

They concluded that PC Clarke, a sergeant who had been with the force since 2014 and a police officer since 1999, would have been dismissed without notice if he was still with the force. He was also added to the police’s barred list.