James Quigley

Introduction

James Quigley is a former Detective Constable with the Metropolitan Police Service whose career ended, after his retirement, with a misconduct panel’s finding that he stole crisps, cash and pin badges from a fellow officer’s locked locker inside Bromley Police Station. The panel found the theft proven on the balance of probabilities, ruled that it amounted to gross misconduct in breach of the standards of honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct, and determined that he should be placed on the College of Policing barred list. Had he still been serving, the panel concluded, he would have been dismissed without notice.

Background Information

Quigley served as a detective constable in the Metropolitan Police, working in the CID at Bromley in south-east London. The colleague whose locker he targeted, PC Joe Kempton, had left two packets of Walkers crisps and a weapons tube containing around £20 to £30 in loose change and pin badges inside the locked locker on 19 February 2024. The case surfaced not through any investigation into theft but because Kempton returned to the locker room unexpectedly and interrupted the man standing in front of his own locker.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Misconduct findings, not criminal convictions. The findings below come from a Metropolitan Police misconduct panel, which found the allegations proven on the balance of probabilities. They are regulatory adjudications rather than court judgments, and the sources report no criminal prosecution arising from the theft or the batons.

On 19 February 2024, PC Kempton returned to the Bromley Police Station locker room at around 6.30pm, heard the sound of a locker door closing and spotted Quigley standing directly in front of his locker. Quigley appeared startled before walking away. Kempton then discovered his locker key was missing from its hiding place; it was later found along the route Quigley had taken. Opening the locker, he found the crisps and the weapons tube with the cash and badges gone. Quigley was tracked down minutes later in the CID room carrying a green Waitrose bag containing two packets of crisps consistent with the cheese-and-onion and ready-salted packets Kempton had reported missing. The panel concluded on the balance of probabilities that Quigley had entered the locker room and stolen the items. The following day, 20 February, officers searching Quigley’s home found two Metropolitan Police Service Level 2 police batons; Quigley admitted having them and said he had previously used them for martial arts training. The panel found the theft proven and gross misconduct, and the baton allegation proven as misconduct in breach of duties and responsibilities and discreditable conduct.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel ruled that Quigley — who retired from the Metropolitan Police on 31 July 2026, before his misconduct hearing — would have been dismissed without notice had he still been serving, and determined that he should be added to the College of Policing barred list, which prevents him from working in policing again in England and Wales. The case drew attention for the small scale of the stolen property against the severity of the outcome, illustrating how dishonesty findings, however minor the items involved, are treated as career-ending within the police discipline system.

Current Status

Quigley is retired and barred from policing. The gross-misconduct finding stands on the public record, and the barred-list placement means any future application to work as a police officer, police staff member in a covered role, or in other listed occupations can be refused on the basis of the finding. The sources report no public response from Quigley beyond his explanation at the hearing that the batons were used for martial arts training.

Impact on Their Career/Life

A detective career that survived the ordinary pressures of CID work ended over a weapons tube of loose change and two packets of crisps, with the theft committed inside his own police station and interrupted mid-act by the property’s owner. The home search that surfaced two force batons added a duties-and-responsibilities breach to the dishonesty finding. The case sits in the Met’s recent run of legacy-standards dismissals in which retiring officers are still barred after gross-misconduct findings.

Sources

• Misconduct999, “Detective Constable James Quigley Stole Fellow Cop PC Joe Kempton’s Crisps, Cash And Pin Badges From His Locker Inside A Police Station,” September 2026 — source