A police officer who drove almost 30 miles per hour over the speed limit while on duty would have been sacked had he not already resigned, a misconduct hearing has ruled.

PC Christopher Forshaw was responding to reports of a crash when he drove at 69mph in a 40mph zone.

He had not been authorised to drive at this speed by a senior officer.

In a subsequent enquiry, Thames Valley Police - which employed PC Forshaw at the time - found that PC Forshaw was not even qualified as a response driver.

He misled the force about this fact, telling them he had qualified in a previous role.

An inspector also discovered that the officer had failed to disclose a relevant health condition.

Put together, Chief Constable Jason Hogg ruled that these breaches of police codes of practice amounted to gross misconduct.

He said: "I came to the view that the appropriate disciplinary action was that the former officer would have been dismissed had he still been a serving member of Thames Valley Police."

However, as PC Forshaw is no longer employed by Thames Valley Police, no action could be taken against him.

His name is to be added to a list of persons barred from working for the force.

Chief Constable Hogg concludes: "In order to maintain confidence of the public is it essential that we deal robustly with allegations of misconduct.

"The public should rightly have high expectations of the standards and behaviour of police officers, both on and off duty."