A police officer who tried to sign post accident victims to his former law firm employer did not need to be sacked, a tribunal has found. Neil Clarke, who resigned as a police sergeant with Suffolk Police last year, also inappropriately shared information with a personal injury solicitor who he previously worked with.
A police misconduct hearing found that Clarke had promoted the firm’s services and breached the requirement that police officers do not compromise or abuse their position.
But while his judgment had been wrong, he had sought to act in good faith and the panel noted there was an ‘absence of clarity’ in terms of police force policy for signposting people for legal advice.
The tribunal heard in January that Clarke worked for three years with an unnamed Suffolk firm before joining the police in 2008. During his time with the firm, he met a solicitor referred to in the judgment as Person A who was now a non-equity partner .
Body-worn camera footage captured an exchange between Clarke and a doctor at the scene of a road traffic accident in April 2021. Clarke recognized the doctor from the scene of another accident where she had been injured
