Love Island 2020 star Mike Boateng has pleaded guilty to allegations of gross misconduct after Greater Manchester Police claimed he lied to take a day off work while serving the force.
The reality-telly-type admitted he lied 'out of panic'; having claimed problems with a flight back home from New York caused him to miss work.
The panel heard that the ex-GMP constable, who's avoided a policing ban, had felt 'victimised' and breached rules after a colleague called him a 'gorilla.'
Love Island couples: where are they now?
all love island couples CLOSER slider
1 of 34Hannah Elizabeth and Jonathan Clark (2015): SPLIT
Remember when they, like, got engaged on the show? That one didn't quite last...
2 of 34Luis Morrison and Cally Jane Beech (2015): SPLIT
They had the first ever Love Island baby but in September 2018 they confirmed they'd split.
3 of 34Jordan Ring and Zoe Brown (2015): SPLIT
Absolutely DID NOT work IRL. Neeext.
4 of 34Jessica Hayes and Max Morley (2015): SPLIT
Still fancy Max in a huge way, not gonna lie.
5 of 34Katie Salmon and Adam Maxwell (2016): SPLIT
Adam claimed he was '100 percent single' shortly after leaving the villa and, um, that was that. #Kadam; gone but never forgotten.
6 of 34Rykard Jenkins and Rachel Fenton (2016): SPLIT
At least they lasted 18 months. Not bad going...
7 of 34Scott Thomas and Kady McDermott (2016): SPLIT
Scott and Kady managed a year before splitting in 2017.
8 of 34Nathan Massey and Cara de da Hoyde (2016): STILL TOGETHER
They've got their little Love Island baby and everything and are very much happily married.
9 of 34Malin Andersson and Terry Walsh (2016): SPLIT
He did date fellow Love Island-er Emma-Jane Woodhams eight months in actual real life before calling it a day. AH WELL.
10 of 34Gabby Allen and Marcel Somerville (2017): SPLIT
Gabby dumped Marcel after he was apparently caught cheating as they holidayed TOGETHER. Blimey.
11 of 34Jamie Jewitt and Camilla Thurlow (2017): STILL TOGETHER
An absolute success story of Love Island 2017, Jamie and Camilla and Jamie are still the CUTEST of couples.
12 of 34Sam Gowland and Georgia Harrison (2017): SPLIT
Sam seems to be doing alright for himself on Geordie Shore, so we don't think he's too gutted.
13 of 34Olivia Attwood and Chris Hughes (2017): SPLIT
The couple were plagued with cheating rumours throughout their relationship (who can forget that whole Chris Hughes and Katie Price debacle?). Since their ITVBe show Crackin' On ended, Olivia's confirmed she's back with ex-boyfriend Bradley Dack.
14 of 34Alex Bowen and Olivia Buckland (2016): STILL TOGETHER
Alex and Olivia are married and literally as strong as ever. We like to live vicariously through them, to be honest.
15 of 34Tyla Carr and Jonny Mitchell (2017): SPLIT
Oh it was never gonna last, was it?
16 of 34Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies (2017): SPLIT
TheLove Island2017 winners split in December 2017; five months after the finale.
17 of 34Montana Brown and Alex Beattie (2017): SPLIT
These two split just weeks after returning to the UK. Sad times.
18 of 34Dom Lever and Jess Shears (2017): STILL TOGETHER
Jess and Dom are SO together, in fact, they got 'married' on Good Morning Britain on Valentine's Day 2017. They then got, y'know, properly married.
19 of 34Sam Bird and Georgia Steel: SPLIT
You know how this one went. Sam accused Georgia of cheating on him with her ex, which she denied. It's safe to say they didn't split on the best of terms.
20 of 34Zara McDermott and Adam Collard: SPLIT
Zara and Adam called it quits at the beginning of 2019.
21 of 34Megan Barton-Hanson and Wes Nelson: SPLIT
Megan and Wesdidmove in together, but announced their split in January 2019 following rumours Wes was getting close toDancing on Icepartner Vanessa Bauer. Uh oh.
22 of 34Josh Denzel and Kaz Crossley: SPLIT
Josh and Kaz announced their split in February 2019, with Kaz saying: "Sometimes things don't go the way you planned, but you have to be grateful for the journey. Thank you for everything especially showing me how to love myself again."
23 of 34Samira Mighty and Frankie Foster: SPLIT
Frankie reportedly cheated on Samira and that was that. Done. Over. thank u, next.
24 of 34Laura Anderson and Paul Knops: SPLIT
There's no bad blood betweenLaura and Paul, but they split months after making it to the final of the show.
25 of 34Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer: SPLIT
Dani released a statement via Instagram Stories (how very 2018) announcing thewinning 2018 couple had SPLIT.However fast forward to April 2019 and Jack announced they'd split.
26 of 34Amber Gill and Greg O'Shea
Amber and Greg were together for less than two weeks but managed to win over the nation and Love Island 2019. But before they could even make things official they split, with Greg reportedly dumping Amber by text.
27 of 34Tommy Fury and Molly-Mae Hague
They faced an obstacle when Maura entered the villa and turned Tommy's head but he decided to stick with Molly-Mae and the rest is history... They surprisingly came runner up during the Love Island 2019 final but they're happy in a relationship.
28 of 34Maura Higgins and Curtis Pritchard: SPLIT
Probably one of the most shocking Love Island recouplings was definitely Maura and Curtis. Against all odds the pair made it to the final and weeks after leaving the villa they became an official couple. Upon leaving Love Island, the Irish ring girl gushed about her other half to Closer magazine, saying, "I'm not going to lie, I'm excited for being alone together and what's about to come. "[He] better be able to keep up, or he'll be gone!"They broke up in March 2020.
29 of 34India Reynolds and Ovie Soko
Ovie and India have definitely been the most successful bombshells of all time. The basketball player entered the villa during Casa Amor and India joined the show just weeks before the final. Needless to say, we were obsessed with them but they've since called it quits.
30 of 34Belle Hassan and Anton Danyluk
Belle and Anton just missed out on the Love Island final and didn't seem to be spending a whole lot of time together back in the UK. Sure enough they split after five weeks, with Belle reportedly freaked out by his Craig David obsession. There's since been speculation that they'll reunite but the reality stars are yet to confirm anything.
31 of 34Harley Brash and Chris Taylor
Despite being latecomers to the Love Island villa, Harley and Chris won the public over - even after their drama following the Sidebar of Shame challenge. Two weeks after leaving the villa they called it quits.
32 of 34Jourdan Riane and Danny Williams
Jourdan and Danny left the villa shortly after the Casa Amor stint and after confirming they were in a relationship they moved in together. However in October, Jourdan ended their relationship following reports Danny was partying with random women.
33 of 34Joanna Chimonides and Michael Griffiths
Michael left us - and the villa - shook when he decided to recouple with Joanna, leaving Amber single. Despite the awkwardness, Michael and Joanna seemed to kind of be working - until she was dumped from the island and then he said he still has feelings for Amber. He was then dumped from the villa and Joanna was then spotted 'kissing' Michael at a festival. Michael has since sparked rumours that he's recoupled with another Casa Amor star.
34 of 34Lucie Donlan and Joe Garratt: SPLIT
Lucie and Joe had a rough time in the Love Island villa, especially after thesandwich maker was accused of "gaslighting" his other half. Luckily post-villa they managed to work through all the drama and were, for a while, in a relationship.
Merseyside Police Chief Constable Andy Cooke said Mike had told colleagues he couldn't work on 7th December 2018 due to issues with a British Airways flight; returning to work the following day but keeping up the lie when asked to prove the supposedly-delayed flight.
Mike's representative Judy Khan QC admitted Mike's behaviour was an example of gross misconduct, but claimed there were 'clear mitigating circumstances' in this case.
Judy added that Mike had been forced to stand by a computer as superiors at Greater Manchester Police compared him to footballer Michael Boateng, who was jailed for match-fixing back in 2014; saying he'd also been called a 'gorilla' by a colleague who claimed the remark was made 'in the heat of the moment.'
Read more news:
Did the right couple win? Watch the cast of Love Island 2020 reunite:
She said: "Mr Boateng's clear impression was that he was being treated differently to fellow recruits and that persisted beyond his training."
Explaining that jet lag left Mike feeling unfit for duty upon his return from New York, Judy Khan QC said: "He acted in a way which was wholly out of character. He lied out of panic."
Mr Cooke ruled that Mike had breached police standard of professional behaviour for honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct.
However, Mike was not banned from policing since Cooke said he was clearly suffering from stress. Instead, he was issued a final written warning.