Crime Desk

A former Metropolitan Police officer has today (Monday 26 October 2009) been sentenced to six and a half years for causing death by dangerous driving relating to a road traffic incident in Bromley in August last year in which a 61-year-old woman pedestrian died.

Malcolm Searles, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of causing death by dangerous driving, one count of dangerous driving, and two counts of speeding at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday 22 September.

The charges were decided by the Crown Prosecution Service following an independent investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

At approximately 9pm on Saturday 23 August 2008, Pc Searles was driving a marked police vehicle which was in collision with local resident Sandra Simpson (known to friends and family as Sandy) in Homesdale Road near the junction with Gundulph Road, Bromley. The London Ambulance Service and the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) attended but Sandra was pronounced dead at the scene.

Following disciplinary proceedings Mr Searles was dismissed from the Metropolitan Police in April, prior to the criminal proceedings.

IPCC investigators found that Mr Searles had used a marked police vehicle for personal reasons from Bromley police station while on duty on 23 August last year. Information retrieved through GPS tracker technology and an incident data recorder fitted to the police vehicle showed the car had been driven at speeds in excess of 100 mph, at times with flashing blue lights and sirens in use. Mr Searles undertook a personal errand to an address on a Swanley housing estate, picked up a passenger and then drove around local streets at speed for some minutes before returning to the same address. He was then returning towards the centre of Bromley when his vehicle collided with Mrs Simpson on Homesdale Road. It is estimated he was driving at over 50 mph in a 30 mph zone immediately prior to the collision.

IPCC Commissioner, Mike Franklin, said: “Our investigation found that Malcolm Searles undertook a high speed 'joyride' in a police vehicle on residential streets for nothing more than personal errands. In doing so, he grossly abused the high levels of trust and responsibility placed in any police officer. His entirely reckless actions have tragically cost an innocent bystander her life and devastated a loving family, to whom I again send my deepest sympathies.

"The safety of the public, a paramount concern for all police officers, appears not to have entered the head of Malcolm Searles on that fateful day in August last year. The public has a right to expect that where police are driving at speed on our roads it is for legitimate and urgent reason - our investigation found quite the opposite in this case."