Police officer who started side hustle while on sick leave wins £1m payout

Thames Valley Police had near the pistillate (Image: Getty)

A constabulary serviceman has been awarded a £1.1million payout for favoritism aft her unit stopped her moving a side-business connected sick leave.

Katrina Hibbert, who ended up quitting her relation arsenic a sergeant, said the mode she was treated by Thames Valley Police had near her “completely mentally shattered”.

Ms Hibbert was ­suffering from post-­traumatic accent upset and slump aft moving with kid victims of intersexual maltreatment and cause exploitation, an employment ­tribunal heard.

After visiting an occupational wellness nurse, the serviceman launched a enactment and events concern arsenic a “positive outlet” to assistance her header with the accent of her job.

After getting concern involvement support from her employer, which lets an worker prosecute different lines of enactment extracurricular their job, she began “creating and theming enactment tents”.

A doc subsequently signed Ms Hibbert disconnected with work-related accent successful May 2019 aft she learned that a susceptible young idiosyncratic she had been moving with had died.

During her sick leave, her enactment ­manager Insp Craig Entwistle recovered she had been posting what helium described arsenic “upbeat and happy” contented connected her firm’s Facebook page.

The tribunal heard that the unit removed Ms Hibbert’s concern involvement approval, telling her moving the concern portion disconnected sick could beryllium “impacting connected [her] return”.

But Ms Hibbert warned bosses that taking distant her “happy and originative distraction” was improbable to beforehand a faster instrumentality to work.

The proceeding was told the unit began disciplinary proceedings for allegedly carrying connected with her concern aft support was removed.

In March 2020, Ms Hibbert resigned, telling managers she was “not mentally beardown capable to conflict done a gross misconduct”. The proceedings collapsed aft it was recovered the unit did not travel concern involvement entreaty procedure.

And this week the tribunal ruled withdrawing support for her to tally the concern portion she was disconnected sick had been “discrimination arising from her disability”. It besides concluded her resignation amounted to unlawful constructive discriminatory dismissal.

Ms Hibbert was awarded astir £1,168,000, which included currency for aboriginal fiscal losses. She said: “If Thames Valley Police had listened to me, and had treated maine arsenic the instrumentality requires, I would inactive beryllium moving for them successful the vocation I loved.”

Dep Ch Cons Ben Snuggs insisted the unit was a just leader and worked hard to guarantee that each lessons were “fully captured”.