A bit more detail here, some of it quite interesting
Met Police officer refused to pay taxi driver and said 'what the f*** are you going to do about it' before punching him, panel toldhttps://www.mylondon.news/news/met-poli ... y-21930649Former PC James Gillies has been barred from ever holding a policing position againA Met police officer failed to pay for a taxi and asked the driver "what the f*** are you going to do about it" before punching him, a misconduct hearing was told.
A panel convened this month to assess the behaviour of former PC James Gillies, 32, who had been based at the Met Contact Centre.
It heard that the then-PC had been on a night out in the seaside town of Eastbourne in February last year when he realised he had lost his phone and card.
Despite this, he took a taxi home hoping his friend, who was already on his way to the same address, would be able to pay for the taxi when he arrived.
However, when he arrived he found his friend was not there yet, at which point the taxi driver said Gillies became verbally aggressive towards him asking “What the f*** are you going to do about it?”
Gillies explained he had another bank card, which although he believed had no funds in it, might be worth trying.
They went to the ATM but when Gillies couldn't withdraw any money the driver claims he was told "I am not f***ing paying".
After this, a confrontation broke out between the two.
The driver said he took the former officer's driving licence to keep in the office and return once Gillies came to pay his fare, which is common practice.
The driver said at this point the officer went 'mental', punched him in the back of the head and tried to put his hand behind his back to arrest him.
He said that in response he simply 'hugged' Gillies until police arrived.
Gillies claimed that he hadn't punched him and that instead the driver had restrained him on the floor after he had tried to grab his licence back.
However, one of the driver's colleagues witnessed the incident and confirmed that Gillies had thrown a punch.
The witness had asked Gillies what the situation was, to which he replied in an angry tone "What the f***’s it got to do with you?"
The witness also said Gillies had called the driver "a bit thick" and said "I don't think he understands".
After listening to the evidence, the panel concluded that both the driver and his colleague were reliable witnesses, and that on the balance of probabilities their version of events was more reliable than Gillies.
An on duty police later arrived on the scene, at which point Gillies said to one officer: “Come on guys, have you never been in trouble before or done some stupid s***?
"We’re all on the same team."
Gillies left the force before the misconduct hearing took place and had decided not to attend the hearing, despite denying many of the allegations against him.
After hearing all the evidence, the panel chaired by the independent and legally qualified Mr Akbar Khan, concluded the following allegations were true:
• Gillies took a taxi without the means to pay the fare
• Gillies was rude and abusive to the taxi driver and his colleague
• Gillies assaulted the taxi driver by punching him
The panel decided that had PC Gilles still been a serving officer, he would have breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour and would have been dismissed without notice.
He will be added to a barred list held by the College of Policing meaning he cannot be employed by any policing organisation including the police, local policing bodies or the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
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