A police officer who accused his own force of bullying and persecution has been sacked for mortgage and council tax irregularities, despite being cleared of the same offences in court.
Ch Insp John Buttress, from Greater Manchester police, was dismissed from the force on Monday after being found guilty of gross misconduct at a police disciplinary tribunal, held behind closed doors.
A panel ruled that he had claimed a single person discount on two properties when he was only entitled to one discount, and of applying for the wrong sort of mortgage when he started to rent out his holiday home.
His sacking came nine months after he was cleared following a two-week trial at Liverpool crown court. After just 20 minutes of deliberation the jury found him not guilty of one charge of mortgage fraud following an investigation by colleagues from GMP.
Buttress, who was once so highly regarded within GMP that he appeared on recruitment posters, insisted he ended up in the dock only after he stood up to senior officers, whom he accused of bullying and persecution.
In an interview with the Guardian at the time, he accused certain people within GMP of waging “an orchestrated smear campaign” against him and said he had been “stitched up”.
A spokeswoman for Kent police confirmed on Monday that it was carrying out an independent criminal investigation into certain GMP officers Buttress accuses of breaking the law as they attempted to oust him from his job.
In court in January Buttress was cleared of failing to tell his mortgage provider that he was occasionally letting out part of his north Wales farmhouse to holidaymakers. The charge was that he illegally took out a cheaper personal mortgage rather than a buy-to-let policy.
He told the court in January that his troubles began when he headed up a new stop-and-search programme in 2012 that proved unpopular among many officers. He claimed he was also targeted after standing up for an Asian colleague who claimed to have suffered racially motivated ill-treatment within GMP.
Despite the unanimous crown court acquittal, in April Dep chief constable Ian Hopkins — who takes over next month as the chief constable — announced Buttress would face a disciplinary hearing.
The tribunal began last week and was held in private, despite the BBC applying for access to the hearing, arguing it was in the public interest.
GMP confirmed on Monday that Buttress had been fired with immediate effect. Asst Ch Const Garry Shewan said: “The public rightly expect the highest professional standards from their police officers and these expectations are higher when they are senior officers. When we join policing we are aware of the responsibilities that come with the uniform.”
“Ch Insp Buttress has fallen below the accepted standards in relation to honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct in that he applied for a specific mortgage relating to a domestic dwelling when he was in fact renting out the farm house as a holiday rental. He also applied for two lots of single persons discount from the council for council tax for the same period on two different properties when aware that he was only entitled to one.
“This is the end of a process that began when the Crown Prosecution Service felt there was sufficient grounds to take a criminal prosecution forward. Ch Insp Buttress may have been acquitted in a crown court where the burden of proof is beyond all reasonable doubt, the burden of proof for breaching the standards of professional behaviour is based on the lower threshold of a balance of probabilities.”
In a statement Buttress said: “I am both shocked and disappointed by the decision of the panel. In January this year, in a process properly presided over, a jury cleared me in a matter of minutes when reviewing exactly the same evidence.
“I was clearly wrong to assume that the process conducted by Greater Manchester police would be fair, transparent and open to public scrutiny.” He said he would be seeking funds to appeal the decision.
Earlier this year GMP officers were disciplined, but not sacked, following the death of a 17-year-old boy. Joseph Lawton killed himself two days after being arrested and detained by GMP officers.
A report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission found failings in staff performance and evidence of “a concerning culture” within a GMP custody unit.
