Officer guilty of misconduct over mushroom foraging report

A police officer at the centre of a controversy sparked by efforts to ban a woman from a park for illegal mushroom foraging has been found to have committed gross misconduct.

In November 2024, Louise Gather travelled from her home in Derby to Bradgate Park, Leicester in search of magpie inkcaps - a rare kind of fungus.

The 39-year-old told the BBC she had been unsuccessful in her search, but despite this, former PC Christopher Vickers later attended her property and issued a community resolution order.

However, the misconduct panel found he had issued the paperwork to her husband and then lied when updating an official police database - claiming to have spoken directly to Mrs Gather.

The panel said he would have been sacked over the incident if he had not already left the force.

It was found that Mr Vickers actions had been dishonest, deliberate, and had the potential to damage police confidence.

Community resolution orders are an informal agreement between a complainant and an alleged offender, and for it to be valid, it had to be issued to Mrs Gather should have been spoken to directly, accepted responsibility for the offence and signed the paperwork.

The report concluded that Mr Vickers did not follow this policy when issuing the resolution.

Mrs Gather previously said the order had included agreeing not to take items from the park in the future, and looking into Bradgate Park's status as a designated site of special scientific interest (SSSI).

Picking mushrooms is illegal in sites of special scientific interest, which are protected areas of land or water.

At the time of the incident Mrs Gather had said she felt the actions of Leicestershire Police had been "a bit excessive" - although this was not assessed by the misconduct panel.

The hearing, which took place in October, was told the force received a call from Bradgate Park Trust about a woman who was picking mushrooms at their park in Leicester on 8 November 2024.

On 25 November, Mr Vickers went to her home address and advised her husband that he would issue a community resolution, an informal agreement between a complainant and an alleged offender.

Her husband signed the relevant paperwork before the officer left.

Following the visit, Mr Vickers put an entry on a police system stating that he had spoken to Mrs Gather, that she had admitted to the offence and that she had received the community resolution.

In response to the allegation, the former officer accepted his actions, but said he was intending to call Mrs Gather, but had forgotten.

Concluding the report, the misconduct committee said Mr Vickers knew his actions did not align with police policy and were done "for his own convenience".

Following the misconduct hearing, Mrs Gather said: "I did not personally instigate or pursue a complaint against the officer.

"The Professional Standards Department asked for my version of events after the story was picked up by the press, when they realised that the officer had recorded a crime on my record without evidence or ever speaking to me.

"Leicestershire Police had already apologised, and the charge was removed from my record.

"I had no idea that records had been falsified or that the officer's actions constituted gross misconduct."