Police officer quits but denies BNP link

Rob Waugh | Wednesday, 17 August 2005 Source: Yorkshire Post

A POLICE community support officer linked to the British National Party has resigned, the Yorkshire Post has learned.

Andrew Matthews took the decision to leave West Yorkshire Police after being given the option at the end of a 90-minute disciplinary hearing in front of Assistant Chief Constable Steve Smith.

However, it is understood the police could not establish whether he was a member of the far-right party – membership of which is banned in the police – and instead he was facing dismissal for his misuse of the police national computer system and other misdemeanours while on duty.

Mr Matthews, of Garforth, Leeds, had originally faced a criminal inquiry into allegations he had misused the police computer to pass on information to the BNP.

Detectives from the professional standards department found no evidence to support the allegations but they did uncover evidence that Mr Matthews had misused the system to gather information for personal use along with other discreditable behaviour while on duty.

West Yorkshire Police began an inquiry into Mr Matthews, who worked out of Morley police station in Leeds, in May after the Yorkshire Post passed on a BNP membership card with his name on it. But despite extensive inquiries detectives could not confirm whether Mr Matthews had actually registered the membership himself.

Last night Mr Matthews issued a statement through solicitors Walker Morris which said: "Following a full and thorough investigation by the Professional Standards Department of West Yorkshire Police, no evidence was found that I misused the police national computer to pass on information to the BNP.

"Further, no evidence was found that I was a member of the BNP and I deny being a member.

"Matters did, however, come to light during the course of that investigation which led me to reconsider my position as a Police Community Support Officer and I therefore took the decision to resign from that post on the 10th August 2005 during a disciplinary hearing on unrelated matters."

A spokeswoman for West Yorkshire Police said: "We can confirm that a 29-year-old police community support officer has resigned from the force following an internal investigation."