A police officer has kept his driving licence — after he drove the wrong way down a one-way street and forced terrified motorcyclists to swerve out of his way.

Officers who found the off-duty officer and an off-duty colleague in a bar after the incident but failed to take any action have been disciplined.

The incident, which happened on Church Street and Parliament Street in Hamilton, was captured on CCTV and has now been referred to the Police Complaints Authority.

It is understood patrol officers tracked down the car, which was parked on Front Street, and later traced the two off-duty male officers to a nearby bar.

The two were not in uniform and the car was privately owned but the pair were recognised as police officers.

The incident happened on June 22 at around 12.30am.

Motorcyclist Sirkka Huish was one of the people who had to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

She said: “As I rode along Church Street, I saw a car coming towards me at speed. I kept thinking the car would stop or change direction but it just kept coming straight at me.

“It’s the last thing you expect to see on a one-way street. I had to swerve at the last-minute to avoid an accident.

“There were tourists on another bike screaming that the car was going the wrong way.”

Ms Huish, a former reporter at The Royal Gazette, added: “It was at the end of the America’s Cup and it was only luck that someone wasn’t seriously injured or even worse. This could have easily resulted in a very serious accident.”

Ms Huish was not asked to give a witness statement as part of the investigation because police said they had enough evidence from CCTV footage to prosecute.

She added: “This was by far the worst display of driving I have seen in Bermuda. The off-duty officer demonstrated the epitome of dangerous driving and this is, ironically, the type of behaviour police are trying to stamp out on the island’s roads.”

The officer behind the wheel of the car was later fined $800 and had ten penalty points imposed on his licence after an appearance in Magistrates’ Court.

The Bermuda Police Service apologised on behalf of the officer who was driving the car and said he had “let them down” and showed “exceptional disregard for traffic laws”.

Acting Chief Inspector Robert Cardwell wrote in an e-mail to Ms Huish: “This incident of exceptional disregard for the traffic laws in place in the City of Hamilton was captured on the CCTV.

“The off-duty officer driving the car the wrong way and the off-duty officer with him were both identified.

“The driver of the car was prosecuted for an offence of driving without due care and attention after we consulted with the Director of Public Prosecutions on the appropriate charges to bring.

“The on-duty officers initially attending this report have been dealt with internally under the Police (Conduct) Orders 2016 as a result of perceived performance issues that came to light in reviewing their response to this report and their perceived inaction in dealing with it appropriately at the time.”

Mr Cardwell also apologised on behalf of the officer for his “extremely bad judgment”.

He wrote: “We try hard within the police service to ensure that all of our staff act appropriately at all times.

“The reality is that we are an organisation of humans so there will always be the few that will let us down.”

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