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A police sergeant with Devon & Cornwall Police has been dismissed without notice following a gross misconduct hearing which concluded he submitted a misleading document in an attempt to avoid a speeding penalty.
Police Sergeant Timothy Perrin, who joined the force in 2004, was the subject of a two-day public misconduct hearing held on 16 and 17 June 2025 at the Riviera International Conference Centre in Torquay. The panel found he breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour for Honesty and Integrity and for Discreditable Conduct.
The misconduct related to an incident on 20 August 2023, when Sgt Perrin drove his personal vehicle at 48mph in a 30mph zone while on his way to Plymouth custody suite. The vehicle was not insured for business use and he was not covered under police exemptions for emergency driving.
Following receipt of a Notice of Intended Prosecution, Perrin submitted a formal statement (Form 51) attempting to claim an exemption, citing operational necessity. However, the misconduct panel found he had drafted the document to deliberately mislead, falsely implying he had received an urgent call to assist at the custody centre and that his journey was critical to police operations.
The panel, chaired by Temporary Assistant Chief Officer Lucy Baillie, concluded Perrin’s actions were not overtly dishonest but “lacked integrity” and were intentionally written to give a misleading impression. While acknowledging Perrin’s previously unblemished 20-year record, the panel stated that integrity is “absolutely central” to police work and that his conduct risked undermining public trust in the service.
The decision read:
“The seriousness lies in the fact that this is an officer who was prepared to submit an intentionally misleading document in the hope of avoiding a penalty. That goes to the root of what is expected of a professional police officer… He should have told the unvarnished truth rather than engaged in spinning the facts.”
Additional scrutiny during the hearing revealed that Sgt Perrin’s claims of receiving urgent radio communication en route to Plymouth were false, as his police radio had not been used at all in the month of August 2023.
In reaching the decision, the panel assessed his culpability as deliberate, with the misconduct aimed at securing a personal benefit. They concluded that dismissal without notice was the only appropriate sanction to protect public confidence and uphold standards within policing.
The officer has the right to appeal the decision through the Police Appeals Tribunal.
