Luke Hodgson, a special constable volunteering for West Mercia Police, has been dismissed without notice following a misconduct hearing. The hearing, chaired by Chief Constable Richard Cooper in July, concluded that Mr Hodgson's actions amounted to theft and breached standards of honesty and integrity.
Mr Hodgson was found to have deliberately failed to pay for three carrier bags, valued at £1.20, from his other employer, Sainsbury's, on three occasions in December 2025. He had previously been sacked by the supermarket after an internal disciplinary process.
Chief Constable Cooper rejected Mr Hodgson's explanation that he had inadvertently failed to pay for the bags, noting that he had been trained in using self-service tills and had paid for bags correctly on other occasions. Each transaction also required confirmation that no bag had been taken.
The chief constable stated that deliberate dishonesty is not compatible with the high standards of integrity required of the police service. Mr Hodgson will be placed on the College of Policing's barred list, preventing him from serving as a police officer in the future.