UK police officer found guilty of gross misconduct after ‘key jamming’ while WFH
A UK detective has been found guilty of gross misconduct after “overwhelming” evidence revealed what he was really doing when working from home.
A UK detective has been barred from policing after he was found guilty of gross misconduct after he was caught faking being busy while working from home.
Detective Constable Niall Thubron, 33, of Durham Police in England, was found to have been using “key jamming” to keep his computer active and create the illusion of continual work during the two days each week he was permitted to work remotely.
The misconduct hearing, held on September 29, heard Thubron held down a key on his computer keyboard on 38 occasions over 12 separate days between December 3, 2024 and January 13, 2025.
Durham Chief Constable Rachel Bacon described the evidence presented at the hearing as “overwhelming”, with data from the former detective’s laptop revealing lengthy periods where the only activity was single key strokes.
There was a period in December 2024 when the ‘I’ key was pressed over 16,000 times, the hearing heard.
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Evidence showed Thubron used key jamming for 45 hours of the total 85 hours he was logged in for when working from home.
“He was frequently away from the keyboard for half of his working day,” Chief Constable Bacon said.
“The public would rightly be appalled by this conduct, and it would have an inevitably corrosive effect on the public trust in the force and the profession.”
The former detective, who did not attend the hearing, first joined Durham Police in 2016, becoming detective in 2024.
In November, he secured a coveted role with the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit (NEROCU), where he was trusted to work remotely regularly throughout the week.
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A month later monitoring software on his computer flagged “suspicious activity”, which then triggered an internal anti-corruption investigation.
Thubron resigned from Durham Constabulary on May 15, 2025, but the disciplinary hearting concluded he would have been fired for gross misconduct if he had not already left his role.
Chief Constable Bacon described Thubron’s actions as “straightforwardly dishonest conduct”, saying “he knew what he was doing would make it look as if he was working when he was not”.
The constable said the former detective’s motivation was “laziness”, calling his acts “deliberate and planned”.
Thubron’s former supervisor, Detective Sargent Stephen Gillibrand, told the hearing that he felt “let down and embarrassed” by the former officer’s actions.
“The NEROCU, and me personally, placed trust in DC Thubron to undertake his investigations whilst being provided with the opportunity and benefit of working from home,” he said in a statement.
“The feeling of being let down is magnified by the fact that he has clearly employed tactics to deceive me and the NEROCU.
“His actions have undermined me, my team, and the NEROCU, and I am disappointed and upset.”
Having come to the conclusion that Thubron would have been dismissed without notice, had he not already resigned, Chief Constable Bacon said he would be added to the College of Policing’s barred list.
He has a right to appeal.
