A 33-year-old Kent police officer who was tempted to commit an insurance fraud has escaped a jail sentence - but lost his career.

David Williamson was instead fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £450 prosecution costs.

After hearing that the officer had since resigned, a judge at Maidstone Crown Court, said: "The loss of his job is a much worse penalty than I could impose."

Williamson, of Garden Road, Tonbridge, pleaded guilty to theft.

The court heard that Williamson, in June last year, sent a claim to More Than insurance brokers for damage to his laptop computer.

Sarah Jones, prosecuting, said Williamson claimed on four occasions that the computer did not work. He was told that the claim would be met and to keep the broken computer until it was settled.

Williamson was sent vouchers worth just under £1,600 valid for Dixon’s. He used them to buy goods including a flat screen TV, a satellite navigation system and DVDs.

But, said Miss Jones, Williamson had told police colleagues that he had made an insurance claim for his computer but it had not been damaged at all.

"Colleagues had the impression he was telling them he had made a false claim," she said.

When the computer was inspected the hard drive showed it had been used virtually on a daily basis. One session on the internet ended only minutes after calling the insurance company.

"He had been talking to a friend in the pub, who suggested that he should make a claim," said the prosecutor.

He eventually admitted he had not told the truth to the insurance company.

Williamson had paid back the total of the vouchers to Royal Sun Alliance, the insurance company that issued the policy through More Than.

Miss Jones said Williamson had passed his exams as a sergeant, but had since resigned from Kent police.

Jonathan Barnard, defending, told Judge Michael Lawson, QC: "You see a distraught and shattered man who, at the aged of 33, has everything he worked towards so diligently taken from him by his own stupidity.

"Of course it is a serious matter but it is right at the bottom end of false insurance claims. This incident was completely out of character for this man. There are in total 62 people who have written in support."

They included two chief inspectors, a solicitor, a professor and a restaurateur.

Judge Lawson said: "Because this is an offence of dishonesty which has no bearing on his work as a police officer, I find that distinction allows me to consider an alternative to custody.

He told Williamson: "You don’t need me to tell you that you have humiliated those who have held you in such high regard. You have deceived them.

"You don’t need me to tell you how damaging it is that somebody who holds the office of police constable should have a flexible view of dishonesty.

"But you have paid, as you should, a heavy penalty, so what I am doing is simply tidying up."

The judge ordered that the goods obtained from Dixons should be forfeit as proceeds of crime.

"You will have to start building your life again," he added.