Police hit by another scandal as officer is caught breaching bail conditions |
PC Luke Ebbage's police colleagues were tipped off that he was at an address with the witnesses, which was against the restrictions imposed on him while he was being investigated.
When the officers went to the property, he told them he had breached the bail conditions “because this is all a load of bulls***”.
The constable has since resigned from the force but a misconduct hearing went ahead in his absence and the panel ruled he would have been sacked had he not left.
The case is the latest misconduct scandal involving Norfolk Constabulary staff and has emerged only a day after it was revealed that a detective had been caught faking working from home.
PC Luke Ebbage had been based at Dereham police station (Image: Google)
Katy Sergeant had placed a nail varnish bottle on her laptop to make it appear to her colleagues that she was working.
In another recent case, an officer was sacked for visiting prostitutes. He had previously been given a warning over his involvement with sex workers. Police have banned the press from reporting his identity, citing his mental health.
PC Ebbage, who had previously been based at Dereham police station, had first been arrested in December 2024 on suspicion of domestic abuse and data protection breaches.
He was arrested again in July 2025 accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice and released on bail, which was subsequently extended three times.
The bail, including two conditions banning contact with named persons, was still in place when he was discovered inside the property on December 27.
In his response to the misconduct case the former officer accepted his conduct had fallen below the standards of professional behaviour but said he was “under a significant level of stress” at the time.
Norfolk assistant chief constable Nick Davison oversaw the misconduct hearing (Image: Newsquest)
Assistant chief constable Nicholas Davison, who chaired the hearing, said his discovery upstairs at the property more than two hours after reports to police suggested contact was not “fleeting or inadvertent”.
“He was a serving officer and he would be fully aware of the purpose of bail and of its requirements,” he added.
Ebbage had initially joined Norfolk police as a special constable in November 2019 before becoming full-time regular officer in March 2021. He had been posted at Dereham since August 2021.
Senior officers say the steady flow of misconduct scandals show they are rooting out 'bad apples' from the force.
However, they risk further undermining public faith in the police.
Previous cases have included a police inspector accused of inappropriately accessing and sharing information from crime databases and a PC sacked for watching serious assault case video.