Serving officer dismissed without notice - Scotland

A serving British Transport Police officer has been formally dismissed without notice, following an accelerated misconduct hearing.

PC Bradley Dougall, based in Glasgow, was dismissed with immediate effect by the Chief Constable on Monday 27 February.

The allegations were that on 25 July 2022 PC Dougal arranged to take a statement from a witness to an incident. That same day he uploaded a statement purportedly taken from the witness onto a police system.

However, PC Dougall did not record the statement from the witness but instead composed it himself from the initial account she provided to police.  

When challenged, PC Dougall maintained he had recorded the statement from the witness over the telephone despite her refuting this and audit records not supporting his claim.

At the misconduct hearing, he accepted the allegations and admitted what he had not recorded the statement from the witness.  

The Chief Constable found that his actions amounted to gross misconduct and dismissed him with immediate effect.

Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi said: “Honesty and integrity are non-negotiable fundamental standards for police officers. If an officer is dishonest it betrays the trust of the public and of their colleagues, and PC Dougall broke that trust.  His colleagues knew something was wrong and called it out. 

“PC Dougall dishonestly submitted an evidential witness statement, which had the potential to undermine a future criminal prosecution. There is no place in BTP for dishonest officers and I have therefore dismissed PC Dougall with immediate effect.”