A former police officer has been banned from the profession after he deliberately ran over a cyclist who threw a sandwich onto nearby grass, giving him minor injuries.
Ex-Norfolk Police constable Frederick Boyle, who has now resigned, struck down a man and pinned him under a police car after he saw him littering, a police misconduct panel has heard.
Two other officers in the vehicle, Kerron Tuttle and Abigail Thomas, were given a written warning of 18 months for failing to report the incident and ensure the cyclist’s welfare.
Mr Tuttle admitted the incident was “a bad bit of driving” and “a bad split-second decision” from Mr Boyle.
Mr Boyle was on routine patrol on 15 March 2024, when he saw the cyclist, referred to as “Mr M”, toss the sandwich on to a grass verge.
In response, Mr Boyle activated the vehicle’s blue lights, ran a red traffic light, and drove into Mr M, who had attempted to cycle away.
A member of the public who witnessed the collision said she was so concerned by what she saw that she reported the matter to the police herself.
The former officer claimed he did not intentionally try to run him over and had only hoped to block him from escaping. The panel said: “The decision to turn sharply to the right was a deliberate decision made by former PC Boyle, made, in the opinion of the panel, because of a desire to ensure that Mr M was not successful in evading the officers’ attempt to detain him.”
After performing a PNC check, Mr Boyle left the scene without seeing whether Mr M was safe or had been injured. The cyclist was then left at the scene with a bike that could not be ridden due to the damage.
“[Mr Boyle] accepted that he had some injuries to his leg (reddening) but he could not see any significant injuries and so did not feel it necessary to call an ambulance,” the panel said.
Mr Boyle failed to report the crash as an incident, saying he feared it would make “mountains out of molehills”.
He had previously been involved in a collision whilst on police duty and had received eight penalty points on his internal police license.
Although the incident did not cause “significant injury” to Mr M, the panel found that the risk in the driving of Mr Boyle was very high and serious injury could have occurred.
It assessed the harm caused by Mr Boyle as “high” and deemed the incident as gross misconduct, which is serious enough to justify dismissal.
As a result, Mr Boyle, who resigned following the incident, was placed on the police barred list, which prevents former police officers from working in policing again.
The panel also heard that Mr Tuttle, who was sitting in the front seat, and Ms Thomas in the back seat, also left the scene without checking whether the cyclist was unharmed.
Both officers also failed to report the collision and were given 18-month written warnings.
