‘Dodgy’ Chief Constable Nick Adderley stays away from gross misconduct hearing summing up in Northampton

Mr Adderley failed to appear as the panel sitting to decide his future reconvened in Northampton this morning (June 20) in front of the gathered public and press to hear summing up after a break of nearly three weeks.

The three-man panel, led by legally qualified chairman Callum Cowx, former Chief Constable of Merseyside Police Andy Cooke and member James Maund once again heard submissions from Mr John Beggs, KC counsel for the Police and Fire Crime Commissioner (PFCC).

Mr Beggs KC set out once again the ‘facts, breaches and seriousness’ to the panel asking them to ‘join the dots’ when listening to evidence that they were all on the overarching theme from start to finish, one of ‘long-term’ ‘sustained mendacious deceit’.

Referencing the previous evidence of interviews given to journalists that Mr Adderley said were misreported, Mr Beggs said the claims were made by Mr Adderley in his own CV and application forms where he claimed to have a 10-year long career in the Royal Navy – exaggerating his rank, length of service and achievements – lying on the application form for the job of Chief Constable.

Mr Beggs said: “The defence crashes at the first hurdle. This false legend is in his own document signed by Mr Adderley. It’s completely untrue. The document he signed is completely untrue.

"He described himself as a leader, no longer content with the lie of Lieutenant, he described himself as a ‘Commander’. He never saw active service. He repeats these deceits.

"The sad unhappy truth is that he’s a dodgy police officer because his own hand tells a lie before he even takes up his post.”

Mr Beggs added: “He wants you to believe that’s an error of others but Mr Adderley is the very progenitor of these falsehoods.”

The panel was told the medal that Mr Adderley had started to wear in 2009 on his dress uniform he claimed belonged to his brother Rick.

Rick Adderley had only applied for the South Atlantic Medal 10 days after his brother had received an official notice into the investigation by the IOPC in 2023.

Explaining why Rick Adderley may have suddenly applied for a medal from Queensland – years after his service in the South Atlantic, after the Falklands War, Mr Beggs said: “Mr (Nick) Adderley realises ‘yikes’ I have been caught out and he attempts to get his brother to help him out. ”

Mr Beggs questioned why Mr Adderley would start wearing the South Atlantic Medal and suggested it was ‘putting a toe in the water’ to back up his own narrative in interviews and on his CVs.

He said: “You can look at the saga with this medal. It strongly reveals a conspiracy with another member of his family.”

Concluding Mr Beggs compared the Chief Constable’s lies to Shakespeare’s Macbeth whose reign was brought down by his own actions, saying it was a plainly a case of ‘gross misconduct.”

In Mr Adderley’s absence, Matthew Holdcroft, his counsel, defended his client saying that ‘adjectives don’t make up evidence’ and the evidence was ‘lacking’.

Mr Holdcroft rattled off case and blamed articles written about Mr Adderley saying there was no evidence that the information came from the Chief Constable and that the career-ending allegations needed to be ‘unambiguous and particularised’.

He ended by saying: “Suggesting that it’s a clever contrived lie is demonstrably untrue because no clever liar would be setting themselves up to fail so spectacularly.

"The burden is on Mr Beggs using the civil standard on the balance of probability. It’s so unlikely that he (Mr Adderley) is on a campaign of dishonesty."

Members of the panel will return to the hearing to deliver their findings.

If gross misconduct is proven there are three options available:

– Final written warning

– Reduction in rank

– Dismissal without notice

An officer in a case has the right to appeal the outcome to a Police Appeals Tribunal. The only further avenues open would be to subject the finding to a Judicial Review.

Mr Adderley continues to receive his full salary – £176,550 a year – while he is suspended from his job as Northamptonshire’s top cop.

The Chief Constable has been been directed to attend the hearing tomorrow but it is thought he will be ‘unlikely’ to attend in person.