An ex-police officer who punched and strangled a taxi driver in an unprovoked attack would have been sacked had he not already resigned, a misconduct hearing has concluded.
Edward Howard, formerly a sergeant with West Yorkshire Police in the Bradford area, pleaded guilty to intentional strangulation and assault at Leeds Magistrates’ Court on 9 June.
The 28-year-old, from Shelf, near Halifax, was given a 12-month community order with 200 hours of unpaid work and made to pay the driver £400 in compensation.
Det Supt Natalie Dawson from West Yorkshire Police’s professional standards directorate said Howard’s actions “fell way short of the standards we expect as a police service”.
The misconduct hearing, which was held at West Yorkshire Police’s headquarters in Wakefield on 30 July, was told the taxi driver “genuinely feared for his life and has been left feeling very scared as a result”.
Howard, who was still employed by the force when he was convicted, had been on a night out with colleagues but was sent home for being too drunk, his trial previously heard.
The driver had just pulled off the motorway near Cleckheaton when the former officer leant forward from the back seat and grabbed him by the neck with both hands and squeezed them.
He then punched the man six times and verbally abused him before getting out of the car when it came to a stop.
