Luke Hodgson misconduct hearing ended with his dismissal after a panel found he deliberately failed to pay for three Sainsbury's carrier bags worth £1.20. The decision means the special constable’s policing role is over, and he will be placed on the College of Policing's barred list.
December 2025 at Sainsbury's
Hodgson, who volunteered as a special constable for West Mercia Police, was found to have failed to pay for the bags three times in December 2025. He had also repaid the money and had no previous recorded matters of concern during his service, facts the hearing had before it when deciding the sanction.
Richard Cooper in July
Chief Constable Richard Cooper chaired the accelerated misconduct hearing in July. He concluded that Hodgson’s conduct breached honesty and integrity standards and brought the police service into disrepute, and said there was no dispute that Hodgson had failed to pay for the bags and had later been dismissed by his employer.
Cooper rejected Hodgson’s explanation that he had inadvertently failed to pay. He said Hodgson had been trained to use self-service tills, had correctly paid for bags on other occasions, and that each transaction required the user to actively confirm that no bag had been taken.
College of Policing barred list
Cooper said “an ordinary person would consider this action, to avoid payment when it was obviously required, to be dishonest” and that it was “not compatible with the high standards of integrity that are required of the service”. The hearing was told the financial loss to Sainsbury's was low, but Hodgson’s dismissal without notice and placement on the College of Policing's barred list now prevent him from serving as a police officer in future.
