A former police officer breached professional standards by pursuing a personal and sexual relationship with two different victims of crime, a panel found.

PC Simon Jones “abused his position” as an officer with Essex Police by behaving inappropriately towards two women he came in contact with during his duties between September 2018 and December 2018.

A misconduct hearing panel held on Monday in Chelmsford ruled that Jones’ actions amounted to gross misconduct and decided he would have been dismissed had he not resigned last month.

Jones, who was based at Braintree, conducted a personal and sexual relationship with a victim of crime and sent personal and sexual text messages to another.

He did not attend the hearing at Chelmsford Civic Centre.

Following the outcome, Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Nolan said: “Simon Jones’ behaviour was completely unacceptable.

“He abused his position as a police officer to pursue a personal and sexual relationship with two different victims of crimes.

“These two women needed our help and support and Mr Jones took advantage of their vulnerability in order to form personal relationships with them.

“We expect the highest professional standards from all our officers and staff, and when behaviour fall below those standards, we take the appropriate action.

“The vast majority of our officers and staff are professional and diligent and they work hard every day to protect people, keep them safe and catch criminals.

“Behaviour such as that from Mr Jones undermines the good work of all those people and will not be tolerated and therefore he would have been dismissed if he hadn’t resigned.”