ESSEX Police lost an appeal yesterday against a decision that an officer who used the police database to look up his ex-partner's new boyfriend can keep his job.

Detective constable Ryan Burgess was given a final written warning for gross misconduct by a disciplinary panel in March.

The panel heard that Mr Burgess saw a car outside his former partner's home last June and searched for it on the national police computer.

Mr Burgess admitted taking photos of the car and searching it on the national police computer, but claimed he believed the car was linked to drug dealing.

The panel also found Mr Burgess had demonstrated a lack of honesty and integrity by lying to his supervisors and in a written report on the incident.

Essex Police appealed the finding to the High Court.

The force’s barrister James Berry said Mr Burgess had engaged in “repeated misconduct… it's not a moment of madness or a one-off.”

However, judge Michael Fordham QC refused the application for permission for judicial review, ruling that it was not "properly arguable" that the disciplinary panel had made the wrong decision.

He found the panel had been in "no doubt that the breaches it had found in this case were so serious that dismissal would be justified."

But the panel found, Mr Fordham said, that the "appropriate, proportionate and reasonable outcome was that the officer be given a final written warning".

Mr Fordham ruled that it was "impossible to say that the panel made a mistake in its approach so far as the implications of a dishonesty finding are concerned."