It’s the work-from-home trick we’ve all been tempted to try.
Press down a key to keep your laptop on, all while you kick back and relax.
That’s the ploy one ‘deceptive’ police officer turned to, all until his bosses clocked on.
PC Liam Reakes, based in Yeovil, weighed down the ‘Z’ key to make it look like he was working from home.
The officer cost Avon and Somerset Police more than 100 hours of work and has now been barred from the profession.
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A tribunal found the officer committed gross misconduct on Monday and said he would have been dismissed had he not resigned last month.
PC Reakes admitted opening a blank Word document and holding down the ‘Z’ key during countless shifts between June and September 2023.
This sometimes went on for more than four hours, but the officer denied trying to trick others that he was working from home when he wasn’t.
He accepted his behaviour fell below the standards expected, though denied gross misconduct.
There had been concerns raised about PC Reakes’ performance throughout 2024 before the ploy was discovered.
An internal audit of keystrokes in September 2024 then found that his total was much higher than others doing similar jobs.
The officer’s case argued he was struggling with mental health issues and lacked the support and motivation that working alongside colleagues in an office gave him.
Reakes claimed he held down the Z character to protect his mental health.
According to the force’s Barrister Mark Ley-Morgan, he said it allowed him to see his computer screen and respond quickly to notifications.
But Ley-Morgan said there was no evidence to support Reakes’ defence.
He added: ‘He knew he was being paid for work that he was not doing.
‘We are all entitled to take a break and have a cup of tea but this was far beyond that.
‘There is no place in the police service for dishonest officers.’
The panel’s chair, Craig Holden, called the officer’s behaviour ‘deceitful and dishonest’.
He went on: ‘The impact on the trust the public have in the police service will be damaged.
‘He had lied during the interview process when he could have come clean, and the activity was regular and sustained.’
The officer will now be added to the national barred list, which will stop him from working in law enforcement again.
Avon and Somerset Police’s Det Supt Larisa Hunt said: ‘PC Reakes was the subject of an action plan and was allocated a tutor due to concerns over his performance prior to the keyboard audit being carried out.
‘The use of any device or system to replicate keyboard activity is wholly wrong and deceptive and the public will be rightly outraged at this behaviour.’
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