A NORTH Yorkshire MP has said Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell should step down after he admitted “disreputable conduct” for trying to help a relative get a job.

Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell was given a final written warning after admitting disreputable conduct in a disciplinary hearing which met behind closed doors.

Mr Maxwell kept his job and North Yorkshire Police said he was looking forward to continuing to lead the force but the decision has been met with criticism.

Tory MP Julian Smith said the current situation was "not acceptable" and called for the North Yorkshire chief constable to step down.

Mr Smith said: "Public life, I believe is about trust, and no more so than if you are leading a police force.

"It is looking after the interests of my constituents and thousands of other people across North Yorkshire. Having admitted that very grave issue, I believe he has to go."

The North Yorkshire Police Authority also criticised him for not admitting his guilt earlier, and the Independent Police Complaints Commissioner (IPCC), Nicholas Long, delivered a stinging attack on the “unacceptable attitude” shown by Mr Maxwell, who he said behaved as if he could “do what he wanted”.

Mr Long said the Chief Constable’s reputation had been “seriously undermined” and condemned his “unacceptable attempt” to discredit the IPCC investigation.

The case centres on a recruitment drive in February 2010, in which more than 300,000 people applied for 60 jobs in the force and the force’s phone hotline repeatedly crashed.

Mr Maxwell, 50, was pictured manning the phone lines, but both he and his deputy Adam Briggs helped relatives circumvent the jam of calls by putting them on a call-back list which should have been reserved for people who had earlier been cut off.

Two members of police staff have already been dismissed over the affair and the disciplinary panel set up to investigate Mr Maxwell and Mr Briggs, chaired by Joanna Greenberg QC, returned their verdict yesterday.

The final warning will stay on Mr Maxwell’s record for 18 months.

In a written report, IPCC Commissioner Nicholas Long said: “The chief constable and his deputy are the two most senior officers in the force and are supposed to lead by example and set the standards for others to follow.

“They chose to circumvent systems that had been put in place to benefit people they knew, while others were expected to follow the process.

“Mr Maxwell's initial defence was that his actions were 'direction and control', essentially saying he could do what he wanted because he was the Chief Constable. That is an unacceptable attitude from such a senior officer.

“It is to be welcomed that Mr Maxwell now acknowledges and has admitted his gross misconduct.”

Mr Long said Mr Maxwell’s admission vindicated the IPCC's decision to proceed with a gross misconduct investigation, and said neither Mr Maxwell nor Mr Briggs disputed the key parts of the evidence against them.

Mr Long said: “I have known both officers in a professional capacity for some time and had respect for them.

“Therefore, the outcomes bring me no personal satisfaction. This matter has seriously undermined the reputations they had developed and represent a significant low point in their longstanding careers.

"This has been a very difficult investigation for all concerned, largely due to the senior positions held by the subject officers.

"We have been challenged by some senior policing figures and our investigators abilities were questioned by the Chief Constable in an unacceptable attempt to discredit the investigation.

"Today is the first occasion on which details of this investigation have been made public, and I am confident that will quash the speculation and gossip that has surrounded this matter.”

Mr Maxwell’s law firm, Kingsley Napley, said he "accepts that his conduct has been discreditable to the force and amounts to gross misconduct".

They added: "He is sincerely sorry and saddened that a very difficult week resulted in errors of judgment, but continues to lead the North Yorkshire Police and wishes only to focus on doing his best for the force in his position as its chief constable.”

The IPCC also yesterday published details on former Deputy Chief Constable Adam Briggs, who faced misconduct allegations over his role in the case and had two of six counts against him upheld in December.

He was found guilty of failing to “challenge and report improper conduct” and “disreputable conduct” for which he received a sanction of “management advice”.

He retired from the force less than two months later after a separate dispute with the police authority and IPCC into how he spent £10,000 on “executive coaching”.