A chief constable sacked for lying about his military service was caught out when his ex wife blew the whistle, it can be revealed.
Nick Adderley’s second wife Jenny Eastman said she felt compelled to report him after being left sickened by the ‘disrespect’ he had shown genuine veterans.
Ms Eastman said she was relieved the most senior officer in the Northamptonshire force, 57, had finally been held to account after he donned medals and claimed to have ‘experienced loss of life’ in war, despite never seeing action in his two-year naval career.
The £176,000 a year top cop was dismissed without notice yesterday after being found to have committed gross misconduct and now faces possible criminal charges.
The Crown Prosecution Service is considering a file of evidence which could lead to charges of misconduct in a public office and fraud by false representation – both of which can carry jail terms.
Mr Adderley gets to keep his lucrative police pension which is only forfeited in the event he is found guilty of a criminal offence.
Nick Adderley leaves Northampton Saints Stadium on Tuesday after the first day of his misconduct hearing
His misconduct hearing was told he lied and exaggerated his naval rank, length of service and achievements when applying to become chief constable.
The tribunal heard how he built a military legend that wasn’t true – including implying that he had served in the Falklands War, despite being 15 when the conflict broke out in 1982.
The panel, chaired by Callum Cowx found all allegations against Mr Adderley proven, saying they found ‘his audacity to be quite staggering’, adding that he had lied with ‘arrogant temerity’.
Mr Adderley was dismissed without notice and placed on the police barred list by the panel, who said his ‘sustained brazen dishonesty and sustained lack of integrity will cause lasting harm to the police service’.
Ms Eastman, a retired policewoman, said she reported Mr Adderley after an old colleague of the pair sent her a picture of him wearing the General Service Medal (Northern Ireland) – awarded for service during The Troubles – and the South Atlantic Medal and was sickened.
At the time of the ten-week Falklands conflict, she knew her ex-husband was just 15, and a sea cadet.
Jenny Eastman (left) met Mr Adderley (right) when the pair were in the same training intake at Cheshire Constabulary in 1992. She was 21 and he was 25. They are pictured that year at the Cheshire Constabulary training campus bar
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Ms Eastman said her ex-husband ‘was embellishing his past to give himself some sort of war hero status’
She contacted the force and her complaint was passed to the Office of the Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner which launched an investigation.
‘The public need to have trust in the police,’ she said. ‘I found his lies gut-wrenching.
‘It is horrifying to me when you consider the bravery of the police and the people who were actually in the Falklands War.’
Ms Eastman met Mr Adderley when the pair were in the same training intake at Cheshire Constabulary in February 1992.
She was 21 and he was 25. The pair married in 1998 but had gone their separate ways within four years after she filed for divorce on the grounds of his unreasonable behaviour.
She said Mr Adderley ‘had a presence about him’ and she had no ‘reason to doubt him or be wary of him’.
But Ms Eastman added: ‘As time went on it became obvious that he was not a nice person.
The Northamptonshire Chief Constable (pictured) arriving at the Northampton Saints ground on May 28 for a gross misconduct disciplinary hearing
Ms Eastman declined to go into further detail about her relationship with Mr Adderley but said that as she reached 30 she had a ‘lightbulb moment’ and knew she had to get out of the relationship.
She said that by the time she filed for divorce, she had ‘learned a great deal about Mr Adderley’s character’ but said her decision to blow the whistle was not the action of a scorned ex-wife.
‘People might think I’m bitter towards him or he thinks I’ve waged a campaign against him’, Ms Eastman added.
‘But it’s not that. I would have done the same if this was just somebody I knew about, rather than an ex-partner. I didn’t go to the Press with this, I did it (blew the whistle) through the proper channels.
‘People in service should be held to a high degree of trust. People like him should not be running a police force.’
The misconduct hearing in Northampton heard Mr Adderley wore a South Atlantic Medal (SAM), awarded to military personnel and civilians for service in the Falklands war, that was found to be fake by a Ministry of Defence medal expert.
Mr Adderley claimed on his CV and his application form when applying to become chief constable in 2018 that he had been in the Royal Navy for 10 years when he had served for only two, and had apparently included his service with the Sea Cadets from the age of 10 in that calculation.
Mr Adderley pinned the 1982 campaign medal to his chest – despite not joining the Royal Navy until two years later
He also claimed that he had attended the Britannia Royal Naval College for four years, despite his application being rejected.
Adderley also said that he had seen active service, been a military negotiator in Haiti despite never visiting the country, and that he had been a ‘commander or a lieutenant’ even though he only achieved the rank of able seaman.
Announcing his decision yesterday, panel chair Mr Cowx said the case raised serious questions about vetting of police officers and that alarm bells should have rung’ when Mr Adderley applied for the top job.
Mr Adderley, who lives in Gwynedd, with his third wife, did not attend the final day of the misconduct hearing, despite being directed to by Mr Cowx.
In a statement read out on his behalf by his barrister Matthew Holdcroft, he said he ‘deeply regrets’ any offence his medal-wearing may have caused veterans.
IOPC regional director Emily Barry said Adderley’s conduct ‘had fallen well below the professional standards of any police officer, never mind a chief constable.’
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Danielle Stone said the case had put Northamptonshire Police ‘in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons’ and that proper process and vetting was not in place when he was hired.
Acting Chief Constable Ivan Balhatchet said the ‘unprecedented nature’ of what has happened ‘should not reflect on the dedication and commitment shown by Northamptonshire Police officers and staff’.