Five Metropolitan Police officers are facing the sack after petrol bombs were removed from a store at a riot training facility, lit and thrown, destroying a pool car.
PC James Duthoit is accused of lobbing the Molotov cocktails that resulted in a blaze needing 150 fire extinguishers to put out.
He is also said to have caused £10,000 worth of damage at the tactical training centre near Gravesend, Kent in March 2022.
PCs Jason Pippin, Jonathan Gooch, Mark Ellison and an unnamed constable are alleged to have “intentionally left out details about the incident or knowingly given misleading statements”, according to a notice of their gross misconduct hearing starting next Tuesday.
Duthoit is said to have breached standards of professional behaviour that amounts of discreditable conduct justifying his dismissal.
The four others allegedly failed to uphold honesty and integrity.
Scotland Yard’s £41million facility, which has accommodation for 300 people, features a mock town for public order training where officers prepare to be faced by violent mobs lobbing bricks, glass bottles and even real petrol bombs.
It has mock-up shops, flats, stadium, aeroplane fuselage, train carriage and even a Tube station and is also used by firearms teams.
At the time, the Met made a referral to watchdogs at the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
They said: “Having carefully considered a mandatory conduct referral from the Metropolitan Police Service, received on 23 March 2022, we decided the matter did require investigation and it was appropriate for the force’s directorate of professional standards to carry it out.”
