Police officer quit after positive cocaine test

A former police officer who was found to have taken cocaine would have been sacked had he not resigned, a panel found.

PC Mark Williams, who was based in Slough, was tested by Thames Valley Police's (TVP) counter-corruption team for the class A drug in March 2024 and he resigned in April 2024.

Analysis of a urine sample submitted at TVP's Sulhamstead training base found traces of benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine.

A panel at TVP's headquarters in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, found Mr Williams would have been dismissed had he still been a serving officer.

It was told he admitted to the counter-corruption officers that he had taken cocaine following the death of his daughter and when he was "low".

Mr Williams did not raise that he had any problems with drugs ahead of the test, the panel heard. He provided no mitigation ahead of Thursday's hearing, which he did not attend.