A FORMER police officer who was dismissed after a “misuse of his position” in a row over a basketball is now standing as a Reform UK candidate in a council by-election.

Stuart Ball was dismissed from Avon and Somerset Police in 2019 after a “ridiculous and disproportionate spat” with Sports Direct staff over a basketball which, a misconduct panel heard, culminated in him making criminal allegations against the store’s manager.

Mr Ball insisted he had not been treated fairly and the issue had been “blown out of proportion.”

Now he is hoping to be elected as the first Reform UK councillor on Bath and North East Somerset Council in the by-election for the Mendip ward on July 3.

Mr Ball joined Avon and Somerset Police in 1993 - but his time with the force came to an end in 2019 after a misconduct panel decided to dismiss him without notice.

The police misconduct panel heard that his son had found a basketball, while the family was shopping in a Sports Direct in August 2018, which staff said was lost property and not for sale. The panel heard that Mr Ball claimed “finder’s rights,” ordered a shop assistant to the police station, and got into a “heated” exchange with the shop manager who asked him to leave.

The manager took the ball to Wells Police Station the following day and complained about Mr Ball’s behaviour, whereupon Mr Ball accused the manager of theft and threatening violence.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Ball said he had only identified himself as a police officer after the manager had become frustrated to try to calm the situation.

He said: “I felt throughout the whole system that I wasn’t getting a fair hearing and the whole thing had been blown out of proportion.

“I very much felt that the decision had been made before the hearing had taken place.

“This is exactly why our young cops are terrified of being proactive and getting themselves in things they can avoid, because every scenario is a potential disciplinary nowadays.”

In a statement that was released after the misconduct panel, and refers to Mr Ball only as “PC X” misconduct panel chair Derek Marshall said: “This was a ridiculous and disproportionate spat over an item of trivial value. PC X’s demonstrable behaviour in the shop was bullying, disrespectful and a wholly disproportionate and inappropriate misuse of his position of authority as a police officer.

“We find it astonishing that PC X can still say that he does not believe he has done anything wrong. He truly lost his moral compass.”

But Mr Ball told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “It is not me that lost my moral compass. It is the system that was operating in such an unfair fashion that tries to bully and control young officers into not behaving according to their moral compass. It suppresses police getting involved in all sorts of scenarios now.”

The Mendip ward by-election will take place on July 3.