A POLICEMAN from Ross-on-Wye who took three sick days to go horse racing and was spotted on TV celebrating a win at Royal Ascot has been sacked.

PC Jonathan Adams had denied gross misconduct and told a disciplinary hearing at Gloucestershire police HQ that he was genuinely ill but went racing as a form of therapy for his stress, migraines, and irritable bowel syndrome.

But a tribunal which heard his case over a period of two days ruled that he had been dishonest and that going to race meetings was not compatible with his supposed symptoms.

The tribunal chairman, lawyer Alex Lock, said he and his two colleagues had unanimously concluded that the symptoms he described were "not compatible with the activities he said he undertook in going racing."

The tribunal had heard that PC Adams, aged 32, was a probation officer and had been working under high pressure in the short-staffed Barton Street police station in Gloucester.

He blamed his illnesses plus symptoms of anxiety and depression on the hard pressed working environment.

His evidence about conditions at Barton Street were backed up by his sergeant, Matt Puttock, and a former chief inspector, Richard Burge, who both described him as an excellent police officer who is now doing a great job in a community based team.

PC Adams had told the tribunal that on September 30, 2015, April 6 and June 17, 2016 he was genuinely ill and called in sick.

The panel saw a ten second TV clip of him celebrating the win at Royal Ascot, raising his fists to the camera.

PC Adams said on all three occasions he decided it would do him more good to go to the races than stay at home because racecourses were his 'happy place' and helped alleviate his symptoms of crippling stomach ache and stabbing pains or migraine headaches.

Stephen Morley, lawyer for the force, said: "We cannot have police officers who are dishonest or prepared to behave dishonestly. We don't want dishonest police officers and this officer, on your findings, was prepared to act dishonestly on three occasions many months apart."

For the officer, barrister Richard Shepherd asked the panel to take into account the many glowing references for PC Adams, and said that the public ultimately wanted officers to be good at what they do and the constable was one of them.

But the panel chairman said PC Adams had acted 'entirely for personal gain' in shirking work for the pleasures of the races and there was no reason to pull back from the ultimate sanction of dismissal without notice.