What A Doughnut!

PC sacked for switching price tag on cakes

- John Twomey

A Police officer was sacked yesterday for buying a £9.95 tray of doughnuts for 7p after switching barcodes with a bag of carrots.

Simon Read, 37, was branded dishonest over the scam at a Tesco self-service till.

Ex-soldier Read insisted he had made a genuine mistake while buying a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts for his colleagues.

The Cambridgeshire officer claimed he had planned to play a trick on his sergeant who was on a diet and banned from eating cakes.

So he bought carrots and put them in the bag meant for the tray of doughnuts, a misconduct panel heard. Read claimed he tore off the 7p barcode from the carrots and stuck it on the doughnut tray.

Putting the barcode on the bag would’ve ruined the joke, he said.