It all leads back to the other law in question - The Law of Unintended Consequences.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Hi

If I remember correctly any Police Officer found guilty of an offence and dismissed also loses they Police pension; which is quite good.
Another unwritten punishment example.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope is for tomorrow else what is left if you remove a mans hope.

I would expect anyone in those circumstances to be given a Community Resolution Order and made to pay the difference. In the circumstances, instant dismissal for gross misconduct is probably the most serious punishment available. Oh, and the Google effect, as many others have found out to their cost.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Whilst I don't want to make excuses here, it would be highly unlikely for anyone to prosecuted in the normal way for this offence. The current rules are that thefts under £200, for which there is a guilty plea, are not referred to the CPS, are dealt with by post, and do not require an appearance in a magistrates court.

Under the circumstances described, dismissal from the force was always going to happen and, I'd suggest, a bigger punishment than the "Guilty Plea by Post" procedure would have produced.

He should have been charged with theft and/or fraud, but, playing the devil's advocate, the Police would probably say that it wasn't interest to prosecute somebody for stealing something that cost only £10. Of course, it would have been in the public interest if any of us plebs had done it.

The case of the policeman who went into a supermarket in Wisbech, weighed a carrot to get a barcode price label for 7p, stuck it into a large box of crispy cremes costing in excess of £10 and scanned/paid 7p.

OK, he was found guilty of gross misconduct and sacked.

If anyone of us or a member of the public had done the same thing, we would be charged with theft.

Why not the policeman????