Volunteer police officer also worked for Met as a civilian staff member

An east London special constable has been sacked and barred from ever working for a police force again – but the Met refuses to reveal why.

Special PC Vincent Powder was fired without notice on Thursday, April 30, for “discreditable conduct”.

A notice published on the Metropolitan Police Service website stated: “The matter... amounts to gross misconduct and is so serious as to justify dismissal.”

But Mr Powder’s misconduct hearing was held in secret and the Met has refused to reveal what he did to merit being dismissed.

He served as a volunteer special constable in the East Area Borough Command Unit, which covers Havering, Redbridge and Barking & Dagenham.

Police misconduct hearings are typically held in public and forces are expected to be transparent about the reasons why officers have been disciplined or dismissed.

However, the Met said that it did not have to disclose the reason behind Mr Powder’s dismissal because he had also been a member of police staff.

A Met Police spokesperson said: “We don’t discuss reasons for dismissal for police staff.”

Mr Powder’s role as a special was voluntary, but his day job was as a civilian staff member at the Met.

Paperwork released by the Met said his sacking as a volunteer officer had stemmed from wrongdoing connected to his day job.

However, the Met refused to tell the Recorder what Mr Powder’s job with the Met had been or how long he had been employed.

He was sacked from his job on April 2, 2019, for ‘gross misconduct’.

As a result of that sacking, he was placed on the College of Policing Barred Register.

Inclusion on the list “acts as an absolute bar to being employed by a police force.”

A year later, on April 30, 2020, Mr Powder was called before a misconduct hearing to determine whether being sacked as a Met staffer meant he should also be sacked as a special constable.

The decision to fire him as a special constable was held in private because of the coronavirus pandemic.