A POLICE officer has been disciplined after he wrote statements on behalf of colleagues and submitted them to the Public Prosecution Service without their knowledge.
A Police Ombudsman investigation found the officer's actions had caused the collapse of a planned prosecution.
A man was due to be prosecuted after he struggled with police who had stopped him on suspicion of drugs offences in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, in December 2015.
No drugs were found but the man was arrested for obstructing police and possession of a blade.
A file was then submitted to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) which directed that he should be prosecuted.
A court date was set and a summons was sent to one of the officers whose statement had been included in the prosecution file.
The officer realised that he had never written the statement and advised his supervisor.
The PSNI’s Discipline Branch found two statements had been submitted to the PPS without the knowledge of the officers who were supposed to have written them.
The PPS then withdrew the prosecution.
The officer told Police Ombudsman investigators he had written the statements based on police records after the officers involved had failed to supply them.
The officers confirmed the statements were factually correct but said they were unaware that they had been submitted to the PPS on their behalf.
