Officer 'made call on crash victim's mobile'

A police officer who allegedly called home from the scene of a fatal road crash using the victim's mobile phone is to be the subject of a disciplinary investigation.

A police officer who allegedly called home from the scene of a fatal road crash using the victim's mobile phone is to be the subject of a disciplinary investigation.

James Morgan, 64, was killed instantly in the accident, while his wife Edna was left in a serious condition. His family made a complaint when they discovered that a call had been made from the couple's telephone following the accident. It later emerged that the number stored on the phone was in fact that of the officer who had attended the scene.

Yesterday Kent Police confirmed that a Maidstone officer was under investigation. He has not, however, been suspended from duty.

The officer is known to have written a personal letter of apology to the family but remains under investigation.

In a separate incident, Mr and Mrs Morgan's relatives were "sickened" to find that her handbag had been stolen following the crash. The couple had only just withdrawn their pension when Mr Morgan's Ford Orion was in collision with a Fiesta on the A20 at Lenham, near Maidstone, on 13 October. The bag containing £220, however, was not among her belongings when they were collected.

Yesterday, their son-in-law, Rod Whybrow, from Doddington, said: "The emergency services remember seeing the handbag when paramedics administered drugs to my mother-in-law in the car. The police accident pictures show it was then put on the dashboard, but then it disappeared.

"How can anyone do a thing like that when someone has just died? We are not prepared to sit back and let this go. Whoever did this is the lowest of the low."

Yesterday a spokesman for the Kent constabulary said a man in his 20s had been questioned about the incident and released on bail.