I want to take you back to Wednesday 27th March 2019. A 69 year old woman driving back from Ambleside to the Scottish Borders has a horrendous ordeal at the hands of a corrupt police officer; PC2542.
It’s around 9.45pm and along with her two passengers the woman joins the A66 just after Kewick on her way back to the Scottish Borders from Ambleside. The incident, which took place on the eastbound carriageway between Keswick and Penrith, left the pensioner so traumatised that they never felt safe getting back behind the wheel again.
According to the formal complaint viewed by this publication, the driver, now deceased, regularly visited family in the Lake District and describes themselves as an experienced motorist and was traveling with two passengers when a vehicle began aggressively tailgating them.
For nearly 20 minutes, the trailing vehicle allegedly engaged in highly erratic and threatening behaviour. The complainant stated the driver was flashing their headlights, aggressively fluctuating their speed, and driving so close it appeared they were “attempting to ram” the vehicle from behind.
“I cannot stress enough how dangerous the vehicle was driving, and I felt genuinely in fear of my life,” the driver wrote in the complaint.
Attempts by the motorist to safely pull into a layby were reportedly blocked by the trailing vehicle’s aggressive manoeuvres. It was only after nearly 16 miles of this pursuit that the vehicle activated blue flashing lights, revealing it to be an unmarked or off-duty Cumbria Police vehicle, a small van with only one occupant, PC2542
A Tense Roadside Confrontation
Upon pulling into a layby, the situation allegedly escalated further. When the terrified passengers challenged the officer regarding his reckless driving, the officer told them to “shut up.”
The complaint identifies the officer involved by his provided collar number, 2542.
The officer was “rude and abusive” and completely dismissive of the distress his driving had caused. Furthermore, the officer reportedly levied a series of serious and completely unfounded accusations. The pensioner was accused of being drunk, weaving across the carriageway, and driving excessively slowly. In fact the only smell of alcohol was clearly coming from PC2542, all the occupants of the vehicle noticed the smell.
During the traffic stop, the officer demanded identification and ordered the 69-year-old out of the car. Despite the dangers of the busy A66 carriageway, the officer allegedly refused to allow the driver to move to a safe location away from the traffic flow, citing “concerns for his own safety as he did not know who was in the vehicle.” At this the other occupants had to intervene and shout at the drunk officer to move away from the side of the road, which he finally did.
Eventually PC2542, a male officer in his early 30s, around six foot tall with blond hair finally relents and is somewhat confused; the situation ends with him simply returning to his vehicle. There are snippets of video taken which show the aggressive and illegal driving as well as the officer initially refusing to identify himself then arguing with the other occupants of the vehicle.
At one point PC2542 makes a comment that the two males in the vehicle were wearing baseball caps. A rather odd observation; did he suspect joy riding? Other than the 69 year old driver, the other occupants were 52 and 38 respectively and this was a regular weekly journey.
Of course all three occupants submitted a complaint to Professional Standards and got the usual response; zero interest in the fact that their officer was driving dangerously, that he was drunk and abusive and that he acted unprofessionally. A standard letter was sent to all three occupants stating no further action would be taken.
I know you’re thinking it’s a shocking incident. But it doesn’t end there. And this is where it really takes a much darker turn. One of the male occupants decides to post incident on the internet, several web sites that report on such corrupt activity by police. Saturday 30th March 2019, two men in their thirties, knock on the door of the female driver of the vehicle, both her and her husband are threatened by these men who demand they take down the posts and delete the video footage. She closes the door and locks it. They continue to knock aggressively for the next few minutes before giving up and driving off in a dark Ford Mondeo.
Since both male occupants of the vehicle work in the web industry they continue to make their complaint heard online. That’s when the messages start to appear. One by one until November 2019, there have been EIGHTEEN messages from females aged between 19 and 31, all of them tailgated on the A66 by the same officer (described as early thirties and blond hair), sometimes in uniform and sometimes in plain clothes. Every encounter was similar. The rear car tailgating and driving aggressively before blue flashing lights pulled them over. But in every case the female occupant is accused of “driving dangerously” or “driving erratically” and threatened. Then their given the option of being “nice” to the officer in order to prevent “further action”. In several cases the request for sexual favours was blatant, other times it was reported as subtle hints; it appeared to depend on how drunk the officer was.
The previous online reports were removed; complaints about the officer ceased as we moved into Covid. Several women reported that the surname of the Officer is Hall; he was identified in several news reports. As far as we know PC2542 is still a police officer within Cumbria Police; but it only goes to show the level of corruption that exists and the extent to which police forces will hide and protect officers. You’d think lessons would be learned after Wayne Couzens but it appears that things only get worse.
Please contact us if you have any experience with this officer or any other police officer.
