A cannabis plant - stock image
(Picture: PA)A police officer has been sacked after cannabis plants and a half-smoked joint were discovered at her home.
PC Amy Byrne pretended not to live at the Dartford address she shared with her boyfriend when officers came across bags of the class B drug, cannabis seeds, and plants being grown with a specialist hydroponics tent.
However, it was the registered address with her employer, British Transport Police, and letters addressed to Byrne were also found at the home.
At a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday, Byrne was found guilty of gross misconduct and dismissed from the force.
The discovery happened on the evening of June 7, 2021, when police officers were attending an incident near to Byrne’s home.
In a subsequent search of her property, they found multi-coloured “deal bags” including some containing drugs, a “half-smoked cannabis joint”, and two cannabis plants.
Byrne, who signed up for the force in October 2017, told investigators: “I knew nothing about the cannabis plants being cultivated at the address when police arrested (my partner).”
But she indicated her intention to quit the force last Friday, and did not attend the misconduct hearing.
In her findings, BTP Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi called the denial “not credible”, writing: “The photographs and body-worn video show that the cannabis cultivation was extremely conspicuous and it is impossible that anyone spending any time at that address could have been unaware of it.
“I further found that the reason that officer’s lied in relation to her living at that address was because she wished to attempt to disassociate herself with the obvious signs that cannabis had been cultivated there.”
The misconduct notice suggests both Byrne and her partner were arrested after the discovery of the cannabis plants, but it does not reveal whether criminal charges were brought.
Byrne was dismissed without notice for gross misconduct, before her resignation came into effect.
