A police officer allegedly tried to buy a £9.95 box of 12 Krispy Kreme donuts for seven pence by sticking a barcode for carrots on them and going through a self-service checkout.

PC Simon Read faces a misconduct hearing over the alleged incident at Tesco Extra in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire on February 10 this year.

Papers say his alleged breach of professional standards is “so serious that dismissal would be justified”.

It is alleged that PC Read entered the supermarket while in uniform and on duty and selected a cardboard tray of 12 Krispy Kreme donuts priced at £9.95, with a barcode on.

He is said to have gone to the fruit and vegetable area and used the self-service scales to obtain a barcode sticker for carrots with a price of seven pence.

He stuck the carrot barcode on the donut tray and scanned it at a self-service checkout so that he was charged seven pence for the donuts instead of £9.95, it is claimed.

PC Read is accused of acting dishonestly and without integrity by knowingly paying seven pence for the donuts when he knew he should have paid £9.95.

Papers ahead of the two-day Cambridgeshire Police hearing, to take place in Peterborough from November 25, say that PC Read’s alleged behaviour “brings discredit upon the police service and undermines confidence in it because a reasonable member of the public, aware of all the facts, would be justifiably appalled that a police officer had acted dishonestly and without integrity”.