Ciaron Hickey

Introduction

Ciaron Hickey was a Police Constable with Cambridgeshire Constabulary until a public misconduct panel found that he twice presented himself for duty while under the influence of alcohol — first parading with alcohol on his breath above the workplace limit in September 2024, and then turning up to a mandatory first-aid refresher course smelling strongly of alcohol a year later, failing two breath tests on the day. Rather than face the hearing’s outcome, Hickey resigned on October 19, 2026, two days before the panel sat, and did not engage with the proceedings. The panel, sitting in his absence, found his conduct amounted to gross misconduct and determined he would have been dismissed without notice had he still been a serving officer.

Background Information

Hickey served as PC 340 in Cambridgeshire Constabulary, a mid-sized English force covering the county around Peterborough and Cambridge. His first alcohol-on-duty incident came on September 11, 2024, when he was found to have paraded for duty with a proportion of alcohol on his breath that exceeded the prescribed workplace limit. For that conduct he received a written warning effective from April 24, 2025 for 18 months — a live disciplinary sanction that made any repeat incident far more serious. The second incident followed on September 10, 2025, when he was rostered to attend a first-aid refresher training course at the constabulary’s headquarters.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Resigned before the panel; found grossly misconducted in absence. The panel found the facts proven and determined that dismissal without notice would have been the appropriate outcome had Hickey still been serving. The findings are disciplinary conclusions, not criminal convictions.

On September 10, 2025, Hickey arrived late to the first-aid refresher course, explaining his lateness by saying he had mistakenly attended a local police station. A short while after his arrival, a member of the Public and Personal Safety Training Team met him in the corridor outside the classroom and could smell alcohol on his breath. The PPST trainer, standing close by as Hickey entered the classroom, also confirmed he smelt of alcohol and reported the matter to the sergeant present. Hickey was removed from the classroom, after which he confirmed he had consumed alcohol during the previous evening. A preliminary breath test gave an initial reading of 18 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath; a second test around an hour later read 9 micrograms. He was transported home.

The misconduct hearing was held at Lysander House on October 21, 2026 — by which point Hickey had resigned as a serving officer with effect from October 19, 2026. He did not attend and was not represented. On October 8 his federation representative had confirmed by email that the former officer did not wish to engage with the proceedings. The chair determined Hickey had voluntarily absented himself, and — applying the legal framework from GMC v Adeogba, which governs when professional-regulation panels may proceed without the respondent — the hearing went ahead in his absence.

The panel determined that by attending the training smelling strongly of alcohol, Hickey was not fit for duty, breaching the Fitness for Duty standard, and found further breaches of Orders and Instructions and Discreditable Conduct. Crucially, the panel weighed that at the time of the 2025 incident he was already subject to the live written warning for the near-identical 2024 parade incident. The panel concluded the proven conduct was so serious as to justify dismissal — and more so given the existing warning — and determined that the appropriate outcome was a finding that he would have been dismissed without notice had he not already ceased to be a serving officer. The written outcome is signed by chair ACC Vaughan Lukey and dated October 27, 2026.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Cambridgeshire Constabulary published the full outcome document on its public misconduct pages, part of the national framework that since 2020 requires such hearings to be held in public and outcomes published. The published record makes the pattern explicit: a written warning for parading over the alcohol limit in September 2024, a second alcohol episode while on duty in September 2025, a refusal to engage with proceedings in October 2026, and a resignation timed two days before the panel convened. Because Hickey ceased to be an officer only after the allegation first came to police attention on September 10, 2025, the panel could not impose dismissal itself; instead its outcome is the formal finding that he would have been dismissed without notice had he been a serving officer.

Current Status

Hickey is a former police officer whose resignation did not stop the disciplinary process: the October 2026 panel found the facts proven, found gross misconduct across Fitness for Duty, Orders and Instructions and Discreditable Conduct, and recorded that he would have been dismissed without notice had he been serving. The outcome is dated October 27, 2026 and published in the constabulary’s public misconduct archive. No appeal has been announced, and no criminal proceedings were referenced in the outcome document.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Hickey’s attempt to end the process by resigning two days before the hearing failed on its own terms: the panel proceeded, found the conduct proven, and recorded the dismissal-equivalent finding that policing’s barred list framework is built on. The published outcome permanently attaches his name to a documented two-year pattern of alcohol-on-duty incidents, ending a police career that a single written warning in April 2025 had already placed under a final chance.

Sources

• “Misconduct Hearing Outcome - Former PC 340 Ciaron Hickey” — Cambridgeshire Constabulary, October 2026 source