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A police officer admitted to holding down a key on his laptop to deceive colleagues into thinking he was working, while he was in fact going "back to sleep".

The Leicestershire Police officer, who has since resigned from the force, used his watch to hold down the "up" key of his work laptop on numerous occasions, while working from home, an accelerated misconduct hearing was told on Monday.

It was found between December 2023 and January 2024, the officer - who was not identified by the force for welfare reasons - used "work avoidance tactics" on 30 separate occasions.

Chief Constable Rob Nixon said at the hearing that the officer's conduct was "deliberate, dishonest, repeated and persistent".

The former officer - who did not attend the online hearing - joined Leicestershire Police in October 2023 as a regular police constable and was still in his probation period at the time of the initial allegations.

Having not met relevant requirements during his probation, the officer was moved into a firearms licensing role - working from 08:00 until 16:00, Monday to Friday - for which it was agreed he could work from home.

Liz Briggs, representing Leicestershire Police, said it was brought to the attention of professional standards some time after that "work avoidance tactics" were being used by officers and inquiries were carried out.

Ms Briggs told the hearing that in an earlier admission, the officer said once he had completed his tasks for the day, "he would place his watch on his keyboard which would keep it live, and he would go back to sleep".

He also said he would keep the volume of his laptop high so he could answer any calls he received, while avoiding his duties.

Inquiries found that the usage of one key on the officer's laptop was recorded as being 83 times higher than the force average.

Ms Briggs said the officer would sometimes avoid his duties for the majority of the working day, including on one occasion when he was recorded as using such tactics from 08:05 to 15:44.

She added that the amount of time the officer avoided his duties amounted to half of each of the working days he used such tactics.

Concerns about the security risks of keeping a police laptop on, but unused, for an extended period of time were also raised during the hearing.

Mr Nixon said: "In this case, the former officer's behaviour was planned, deliberate and repeated."

He added that he was "disappointed" given the level of investment put into the officer at the time during his "short time" with the force and that the officer's conduct would have harmed the force's reputation.

It was ruled that the officer's actions amounted to gross misconduct and that had he still been employed by the force, he would have been dismissed without notice. He will also be placed on the police barred list, Mr Nixon said.

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