A POLICEMAN has been dismissed for misconduct after £50 was stolen from a wallet found on the street.

PC Stephen Davies was cleared of theft in a week-long trial at Cardiff Crown Court last year, but has now been sacked after a Gwent Police disciplinary hearing ruled that he had taken the money “on the balance of probabilities” while on duty at Monmouth Police Station.  

The cash was in a wallet belonging to Thomas Dowden from Sheffield which he had lost while visiting Symonds Yat. 

Andrew McGrath found it while out jogging and handed it to PC Davies at the police station on June 11, 2016. 

But when Mr Dowden came to collect the wallet, the money was missing, the hearing was told earlier this month

A fellow officer asked PC Davies about the missing cash, but he claimed he didn’t know whether there had been money inside.

The panel was told he lied to colleagues “to conceal his theft”, and then attempted to cover it up by withdrawing £50 from his bank account which he said he had then found on the floor of the police station.

Denying the theft at his trial before being cleared by a jury last June, PC Davies told the court: “I have no propensity to want to steal – I am an honest person.”

But ruling that he had breached police standards of honesty and integrity, the disciplinary panel ruled: “The breaches were found proven on the balance of probabilities rather than the criminal standard of proof which is beyond all reasonable doubt.

“The officer has been dismissed without notice as a result of the panel’s findings.”

PC Davies, 39, had been with the force for more than 10 years.