A police officer who threw a log through a window will not lose his job, it was ruled at a misconduct hearing.

PC Ryan Edwards, based in Croydon, accepted a caution for causing criminal damage to a home in West Sussex.

His actions were not proven to be serious enough to constitute gross misconduct, or for him to be dismissed.

The decision was taken by a panel at a misconduct hearing on December 19, which was held to decide if PC Edwards breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour.

PC Edwards paid the victim £60 following the incident that took place in the early hours of November 1, 2015.

Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt, who chaired the hearing last month, said PC Edwards’s behaviour, and the conditional caution he received, was “totally unacceptable.”

He said: “The public, quite properly, has the right to expect the highest standards of behaviour from their police officers and this incident discredits the MPS.

"The behaviour of PC Edwards and the subsequent conditional caution is totally unacceptable.

“However, given that this was a single and brief incident where the officer was immediately remorseful to the complete acceptance of the subsequent consequences of his actions and given that there were no issues of honesty and integrity, I do not believe this constitutes as gross misconduct.

“Therefore considering all the facts of the case I do not believe his actions discredit the service as serious to justify his dismissal."

The incident will be reviewed by the Professional Standards Unit this year on a date yet to be arranged.