Article below taken from The Daily Star 31st Dec 2002, Have you had this official there is a piccy in the Daily Star so come on who has he conned cos he couldn't keep up.

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THE THICK BLUE LINE
Fat bobby Gary Bretherick has been sacked for sending a stand-in to take a fitness test.
Traffic constable Bretherick, 37, feared he had become too beefy to pass the rigorous annual test to continue as a soccer linesman.
So, he got a man 18 years younger to do a series of 25 yard sprints against the clock and a 2700 metre run in under 12 minutes.
But an FA official who knew the constable rumbled the impersonation. Now PC Bretherick has been sacked by Lancashire Police from his job at divisional HQ in blackpool for breaching the forces code of conduct.
The officer had already resigned his linesmans job with the semi-proffesional Unibond League.
An FA spokesman said “The person doing the test was a slim young man whereas the official knew Bretherick was somewhat larger”.
Bretherick said “I have been dismissed and it was a shock.
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With some of the performances we have had this season, we havent had the pleasure!!

This is quite an old story, at least 18 months ago since I first saw it.

The only new part to this story is that he has been sacked by the Lancashire Police for what he did.

Why it took them 18 months to investigate though is anyones guess?

at the tax payers expense of course

Regards,
Ian

Apologies for a rugby player gate crashing the forum, but the 'fat bobby' used to pull the same tricks at school - we were in the same class. He actually was quite a naturally talented all round sportsman, a good rugby player and cricketer but didn't like the hard work side of things.