Ex-officer given suspended sentence after court heard about her heroic service protecting lives and helping vulnerable people
Clough Road police station
An officer forged signatures of witnesses due to the overwhelming pressure of work in the Shop Theft Department of Humberside Police, a court heard. The counterfeit signatures were aimed at speeding up convictions of people caught shop lifting.
Bethany Hemstock, 30, of Hull, had three Chief Constable Commendations highlighted by her defence to show her commitment to crime fighting and serving the public. No one had been wrongly convicted, the court heard.
Her commendations were given for talking a suicidal woman out of taking her life, responding to a man with a shotgun and assisting a vulnerable woman give birth to her stillborn child. But due to work pressures, the officer admitted, at Grimsby Crown Court she had committed misconduct in public life between October 31 and December 12, 2024.
Prosecuting at court, Mollie Briggs said the officer had falsified witness statements on three occasions. One was that of a store manager at Heron Foods in Hull who had given a statement about a shoplifter.
But rather than get the manager to sign her statement, the signature was later forged. When a fellow police officer contacted the manager to say she might be needed in court, the manager highlighted she did not recognise the statement and the details in it were wrong.
She had not attempted to apprehend the suspect, though her statement claimed she had. She said she had never signed a statement on October 13. On October 19, again at Heron Foods an investigation was carried out into a shop theft.
When a police officer later checked the signature of the store manager, the manager said it was not her signature on the statement.
At a Boyes store on December 4 a shop theft led to a police investigation. The manager was asked if the signature on the witness statement was his., but it was not.
No further action was taken by the police on the suspect shoplifter. The police investigation discovered the signatures were forged while Hemstock was at Clough Road police station.
When she was arrested and interviewed in August 2025 she denied signing the witness statements herself. Miss Briggs said a second interview was conducted at a later date and the officer told detectives: “I think I have ****ed up. But I will let you ask your questions.” Miss Briggs said the officer told police she had been under pressure at work to clear cases.
For Hemstock, Holly Clegg highlighted the Chief Constable’s Commendations her client received in 2021 and 2022. She said there was no motivation to secure convictions. “It was to speed up the process of guilty people. She worked in the Shop Theft Department and we know how busy that is,” she said.
The defence barrister told how her client’s father had died at a young age and she looked after her ill mother and autistic brother. “She always wanted to be a police officer,” she said.
Having been dismissed from the police force she had secured a job with TransPennineExpress as a station coordinator. Judge John Thackray KC said the commendable work of the police officer had been “undone by your catastrophic error of judgement.”
“It is an extremely serious office and undermines the public’s confidence in police officers. He imposed an eight-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered her to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
Did you know you can make Hull Live a preferred source of Hull news in Google, which will mean you get more of our breaking news, exclusives, and must-read stories straight away? Here’s more information about what this means and how to do it – you can also do it straight away by clicking here.