The former West Midlands officer has now been put on the barred list.

Ex-PC Harry Sarkar had claimed his “fake girlfriend” died of cancer to get days off work, a misconduct panel has heard. 

West Midlands said that the officer “maintained a detailed tissue of lies to colleagues and supervisors about a fake girlfriend, her fake illness, her fake death, and subsequent fake funeral”. 

The officer had joined the force on 6 October 2020 as a student officer. The “odious” gross misconduct began almost immediately, taking place between October 2020 and June 2021. 

After having been served with notice of being under investigation in June 2021, the officer went on sick leave and never returned to duty.

The 21-year-old then resigned in March before the fast-track misconduct hearing which was held on Thursday. The panel has now said that he would have been sacked had he not already resigned. 

Sarkar admitted that he had lied saying that he needed time off work for unrelated personal reasons. However, he had declined to attend today’s hearing, which lasted a total of 13 minutes. 

He had received three days’ bereavement leave and benefited from more flexible working hours than other colleagues thanks to sympathetic bosses, the force’s professional standards said. 

Colleagues then reportedly became “suspicious” due to his demeanor when he returned to work. 

Chief Constable Sir David Thompson said: “This case concerns a protracted period, with the officer creating a fictional relationship where the other party was suffering from cancer and died.

“This enabled supervisors to allow enhanced flexibility in his working.

“These ‘truths’ were repeated and developed over a sustained period of time.

“Given it concerns a lie about the serious illness or death of a partner, (and) was perpetuated for a considerable period to the team, and special allowances were created, it raises worrying character traits for the officer.”