The BBC can reveal that a newly-elected Leicestershire County Councillor was sacked from the police last year.

Andrew Hamilton-Gray won a seat in Loughborough for Reform, with almost 40% of the vote.

It has now emerged that a police misconduct hearing in January 2024 found he had called in sick, to travel to Spain, when he should have been working as a PC.

The misconduct hearing found that was one of two occasions when he reported sick to pursue his outside business interests.

Posting on social media after his election on 1 May, Hamilton-Gray said he had spent most of his life “serving the Crown”.

He pledged to serve Loughborough North West “with honour, integrity and transparency”.

Now it has emerged that he was a former police officer, and had been dismissed from Leicestershire Police in January 2024.

He was sacked for breaching professional standards on “honesty and integrity, discreditable conduct, orders and instructions, and duties and responsibilities”.

Hamilton-Gray’s page on LinkedIn advertises a consultancy advising “high-end dealerships in the luxury car market”.

It says he has over 13 years experience in the industry, with expertise in marketing brands such as Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley and McLaren.

Leicestershire Police Federation, which represented the former officer, has confirmed that his misconduct hearing related to selling luxury cars.

The panel heard that the force had given him permission to run a car sales business in his own time.

The misconduct panel heard that PC Gray, as he was then known, applied for leave to deliver a car to Barcelona in April 2023.

Part of his leave request was rejected. But a week later, he booked a return ferry ticket from Portsmouth, returning over two days when he was scheduled to work.

He reported in sick only hours before the outward sailing, the panel heard.

A month later, two police officers stopped PC Gray in the passenger seat of a vintage red Porsche. The panel heard that he was giving a potential buyer a test-drive while he was signed off sick.

After PC Gray’s dismissal, Leicestershire’s then Chief Constable Rob Nixon described his conduct as “deliberate” and “planned” deception.

“Misconduct of this nature undermines discipline and good order within the police service and is likely to undermine confidence in policing.

“While this misconduct was confined to a single episode within a long and distinguished police career, it is with a heavy heart, having considered the full circumstances of the case and the guidance, I find the appropriate outcome in this case is dismissal without notice.”

Hamilton-Gray has been on the College of Policing barred list since his dismissal from the Leicestershire Force.

He told the BBC he has been advised not to comment.

He is listed as a registered director of two Loughborough-based companies, Speedster Cars Ltd and Hamilton Gray Consultancy Ltd.

He resigned as a director of another car firm, Hamilton Grays Ltd, in December 2017.

Reform UK has also been approached for comment.