A POLICE constable kept her job despite being branded 'dishonest' by a disciplinary panel which heard that she lied to Churchill insurance company to help a newly qualified motorist.

PC Shelley Holloway, a Gloucestershire police traffic officer, admitted gross misconduct but denied she was being dishonest when she told the insurers that a car she had stopped was not being driven by the young motorist, but by his dad.

She blamed her behaviour on being under severe stress from a variety of problems including a marriage break up at the time of the incident on August 24 last year.

During a two day misconduct hearing at Gloucestershire Police HQ the tribunal heard that after stopping the uninsured young driver, Kuvazaiishe Shonwa, 19, she spoke to Churchill on his behalf and backed up his untruthful story that it was his father who was at the wheel.

After hearing evidence, the tribunal ruled PC Holloway had acted dishonestly but agreed that there were exceptional circumstances and that a final written warning should be issued rather than her being sacked from the force.

PC Holloway told the panel: "I'm deeply sorry to have let anyone down. I now have my entire career resting on just one or two minutes.

"My error of judgement was caused by my stressed state of mind. My career has been exemplary.

"Nothing like this will ever, ever happen again. I'm honest. I'm not corrupt. I'm human. I hope the public can trust me again.

"I pressed on trying to deal with my problems by myself. I am now far better equipped to deal with stress.

"The past 14 months have placed enormous stress on me and my family, but nothing like what I was going through at the time.

"I am pleased that the constabulary is placing greater focus on stress.

"I genuinely love doing what I do."

The chair of the panel, Alex Lock, said: "We accept and are sympathetic to very difficult personal circumstances. A combination of relationship, finance, health, child rearing and housing issues.

"We accept that these caused stress and anxiety and had an affect on her judgement. Such conduct was entirely out of character.

"She recognised her error and reported it. She knew she would get into trouble, and that it would not have been uncovered if she said nothing.

"There is a strong presumption that she should be dismissed but we have concluded that there was an exceptional combination of circumstances."