A Harrogate police officer has been sacked after misleading North Yorkshire Police during its vetting process.

Christopher Hudson faced four allegations at a misconduct hearing in Northallerton last week.

Mr Hudson was alleged to have acted dishonestly, including failing to declare he was friends with a convicted criminal and failing to notify the force he had been involved in a criminal investigation in 2006.

Lisa Winward, chief constable at North Yorkshire Police, said the misconduct had the potential to seriously affect the “the trust and the confidence in the service”.

Misleading the force

The 32-year-old, who had previously been suspended following an allegation of sexual assault in Harrogate for which he was later acquitted, had first applied to North Yorkshire Police in November 2017.

He completed a vetting application on February 27, 2018.

However, the hearing, which was overseen by chief constable Lisa Winward, found Mr Hudson had been dishonest and misleading during the process.

He failed to declare he was associated with convicted criminal Richard Calvert, who he had visited on seven separate occasions at HMP Wealstun near Wetherby between June 2012 and October 2014.

Calvert was jailed for six years for robbery in April 2012.

Mr Hudson, who is from Huddersfield but had been based in Harrogate, had claimed Calvert was “purely someone whom I know by name from my youth”.

However, the hearing found he had visited him on multiple occasions and was arrested alongside him for arson.

It also found that Mr Hudson had called Calvert to wish him happy birthday during an 18-minute phone call.

The hearing found Mr Hudson failed to supply the correct information about being arrested for arson and criminal damage in 2006.

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In a previous application for a PCSO role to West Yorkshire Police in 2016, Mr Hudson said he had been arrested at the age of 14 for "playing football on private property" and was later released.

Officers at the force then confirmed he was arrested for both criminal damage and arson in 2006 after speaking to Mr Hudson.

A year later in his application to North Yorkshire Police, he only declared that he gave a statement to West Yorkshire Police over "an arson in my neighbourhood". He failed to declare his arrest for criminal damage and arson.

Meanwhile, the hearing found he also failed to declare he had four siblings. Instead, he named one “half sister” during the application.

Mr Hudson  also failed to declare he had two county court judgements against him. In his application, he only declared one.

Dishonest behaviour could be repeated