Nick Gragan: the ‘sexting’ chief constable

It has taken 14 months and cost the force more than half a million pounds. But the allegations which have led to chief constable Nick Gargan being told to resign, have finally been disclosed to the public.

If Gargan’s reputation was already damaged, it now lies in tatters after it was revealed one count he was found guilty of included sending “intimate” images from his work mobile phone.

The chief constable has now been suspended, again, and has been asked to step down by police and crime commissioner Sue Mountstevens under powers never used before in the UK.

Here are a summary of the proven allegations against him:

1. Inappropriate disclosure of information concerning a complainant
On July 8, 2013, Gargan was forwarded a complaint against him from a member of the public. Gargan then broke confidentiality rules by forwarding the complaint to a third party with “no proper basis”.

2. Inappropriate disclosure of critical incident report.
On July 18, 2013, Gargan again forwarded a confidential report to a third party. The report about a missing person who was found, arrested and breathalysed, had been circulated around Avon and Somerset police.

3. Inappropriate disclosure of email concerning internal employment matter
On March 13, 2014, Gragan this time forwarded an internal email exchange he had been involved with about the way the force had dealt with a particular issue to a third party.

4. Inappropriate disclosure of letters to IPCC
On January 14, 2014, Gargan had emailed a draft correspondence between himself and the Internal Police Complaints Commission to detective chief constable John Long and Amanda Hirst, head of the police press office. He then forwarded the exchanges to a third party, again without “proper basis”.

5. Inappropriate disclosure of an email chain with a PCSO
On August 20, 2013, Gargan expressed his views on the behaviour of a PCSO in an email directly to them. The email was, again, forwarded to a third party.

6. Inappropriate disclosure of confidential information
Sometime in June, 2013, Gargan discussed the proposal to recruit a deputy for an existing member of staff. Around the same time he began emailing a woman from a “non-police organisation”, indicating that he was interested her working for the constabulary. He later emailed the draft job description to her. In August, following text exchanges, the woman emailed to say she was not interested in the job. Gargan emailed back “expressing regret and indicating that [he] would like to stay in touch”. He was sanctioned for confidentiality and interfering with a competitive recruitment process.

7. Inappropriate disclosure of confidential police report
On January 17, 2014, Gargan sent his then-partner a confidential paper written by him entitled “Strategic Resourcing of the Police Support of the Gold Group”.

8. Inappropriate use of police-issued iPhone
On an undisclosed date Gargan used his work phone to “send, receive and store intimate emails and images, and intimate text messages”. Furthermore, the report said, one image marked “sent from my iPhone” was “either captured by you (Gargan) on your police-issued iPhone, or uploaded onto the same by you for sending from that device”. The behaviour was found to bring discredit on the force.

Read the full story on how Sue Mountstevens plans to force the chief constable to resign.