Poster girl PC’s sickie was exposed by fight at the races over a jug of Pimm’s

A poster girl for police recruitment who rang in sick so she could go to a race meeting has resigned.

PC Kira Wealls, 20, had just joined Essex Police when she appeared in a promotional video showing her transition from Tesco worker to proud beat officer.

However, in June she called bosses to say she was too unwell to do her night shift in Chelmsford. In fact, she went to Newmarket, Suffolk, and became involved in an altercation over a jug of Pimm’s.

Wealls approached police at the racecourse and told them what had happened – and that she was an officer with another force.

Essex Police were informed and Wealls quit after she was put on restricted duties and told she faced a misconduct hearing.

PC Kira Wealls, 20, had just joined Essex Police when she appeared in a promotional video showing her transition from Tesco worker to proud beat officer

The panel, led by Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington at the force’s headquarters in Chelmsford, ruled she had committed ‘discreditable’ gross misconduct and would have been dismissed had she not quit.

Mr Harrington concluded she had ‘abused [our] trust, adding: ‘Essex Police will support staff who are ill but we will not tolerate behaviour that undermines the integrity of the force and brings the hard work of the many into disrepute.’ 

Wealls hinted at the sudden change in circumstances in July when she posted a series of messages on her Facebook account including one that said: ‘The temptation to go to the airport, buy a one-way ticket, leave the country and live on my own has never been so real.’

Soon after joining the Essex force, she had appeared in the recruitment video stacking shelves in her Tesco outfit and holding a sign saying: ‘Serving customers’ 

The video then cut to her in police uniform with a sign saying: ‘To serving your community’ 

Her mother, Alison, said at the family home in Colchester yesterday that Wealls had moved to Turkey. She claimed her daughter had ‘mental health problems’ brought on by the stress of her job but she did not want bosses to know.

‘She was not just throwing a sickie,’ said Mrs Wealls. She said her daughter’s then boyfriend invited her to the races to ‘cheer her up’ but a row blew up after he allegedly took a sip from another group’s jug of Pimm’s. Wealls was about to leave when she was hit by a woman from the other group.

‘She walked over to police officers and told them she had been assaulted. She told them she was a police officer,’ Mrs Wealls added.

Her daughter resigned on the advice of a Police Federation representative. Soon after joining the Essex force, she had appeared in the recruitment video stacking shelves in her Tesco outfit and holding a sign saying: ‘Serving customers.’ The video then cut to her in police uniform with a sign saying: ‘To serving your community.’

She said her daughter’s then boyfriend invited her to the races to ‘cheer her up’ but a row blew up after he allegedly took a sip from another group’s jug of Pimm’s. Wealls was about to leave when she was hit by a woman from the other group