Julie Smith told a misconduct hearing she only took one roll from Beaumont Leys police station in Leicester on 9 February 2023 to “clean a spillage in her car”.

But the panel found Ms Smith to be “not a credible witness” and ruled her actions amounted to misconduct.

As Ms Smith had retired from the force by the time of the hearing, no action could be taken against her except to record the finding, police said.

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The Local Democracy Reporting Service said doubts were raised over the legitimacy of the spillage because Ms Smith had “waited several hours before purporting to attend to it” and had “mentioned it to no-one”, according to a hearing report.

Ms Smith had also “concealed the toilet roll on the way to her vehicle”, the panel heard, and blue paper hand towels had also been available.

The officer’s credibility was further “undermined” by a later admission that she had taken six toilet rolls “over the course of a year”, the panel judged.

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Two further allegations of toilet roll theft were made by the force in January 2023, but the panel said there was not enough evidence to prove them.

On both occasions the panel was satisfied that rolls were found to be missing from the station’s toilets.

But members could “not be satisfied” that Ms Smith had been the one to remove them.

The panel also accepted while toilet rolls and empty rolls had been found at Ms Smith’s home and in her parents’ car, it could not be sure they were those taken from the station.