A police officer accused of cherry picking call outs to boost his arrest count and avoid dealing with a mentally ill man has been cleared of all wrongdoing.

PC Ben Foskett was exonerated by a misconduct panel at Kent Police’s headquarters on Monday.

The hearing followed an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation into the death of 999 caller and Eccles resident Anthony Underdown in April 2015.

No police officers were sent to help the 49-year-old and chronic drinker, who had not sought help after falling and injuring his chest and pelvis at his Bull Lane flat three days earlier.

Despite an investigation finding earlier police attendance could not have prevented the death, the hearing was told Mr Underdown did not get help sooner partly because his name was wrongly recorded by the force’s control room.

PC Foskett had been working at Snodland Police Station when the call came in at 5.30pm. The 33-year-old, described by colleges as “hard working, diligent and motivated”, was alleged to have checked the record of the situation on the force’s Computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system three times but not let the force control room known his availability until he was already at a suspected drink-driving incident in Aylesford.

Simon Walsh, representing the force, said PC Foskett, who has the highest number of arrests in his unit, was monitoring the CAD for “easy” jobs.

He said: “The suggestion is not that you were trying to do no work – far from it. The suggestion is you were looking for work, you were watching for a CAD that was likely to generate an arrest.”

Defending, Edward Gritt said records showed PC Foskett signalled his availability while en route to Aylesford.

No evidence was produced to back up claims six other jobs would make “easy” arrests.

There was also nothing on the record initially to suggest Mr Underdown’s mental health.

Giving evidence, PC Foskett said it was normal for officers to view and self deploy to calls. He said was possible radio problems meant he had not notified the control room of his availability earlier. Given the information available, the drink-driving incident appeared to be the most serious and he was not trying to avoid attending Mr Underdown.

After a short deliberation William Hansen, hearing chairman, dismissed the charges as entirely baseless and based on a partial internal report. There were, he said critical errors in the evidence based on facts which were “demonstrably wrong”.