A police officer who knocked a teenage cyclist off his bike after being on the receiving end of a barrage of abuse has been given a chance to resurrect his career.

PC Lee Jarvis left the teenager with a graze to his elbow when he collided with him as he attempted to stop him fleeing the scene.

A disciplinary panel ruled that the officer’s ‘momentary lapse of judgement’ did not warrant him losing his job with Cleveland Police.

The officer was given six penalty points on his licence when he admitted the charge of careless driving at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court last year.

PC Jarvis knocked the teenager off the bike as he turned the corner at the bottom of St Barnabas Street, Middlesbrough.

CCTV footage of the seconds leading up to the collision and the officer’s body-worn camera footage captured in its wake were shown to members of the panel.

In it, the officer is heard to say – “I have given him a bit of contact and knocked him off his bike.”

But PC Jarvis insisted that he never intended to deliberately knock the teenager off his bike telling the panel it was ‘words that I have blustered out in a stressful situation’.

Callum Cowx, the legally qualified chairman of the panel, said the officer was guilty of misconduct but not gross misconduct on both charges he faced as he described it as a ‘momentary lapse of judgement’ when he carried out the high-risk manoeuvre.

“It was clear from the CCTV that he was intent on boxing him in and forcing him to stop.

“Unfortunately, that caused him to collide with him despite him repeatedly asking for him to stop,” he said.

“The CCTV showed him gradually closing the distance between the vehicle and the bike. It was not used to knock him off the bike but it was used as a barrier to prevent the youth escaping.

“PC Jarvis did use force in trying to stop him. He had proper purpose to try and stop him and was legally entitled to do so.

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“However, the method he used was wholly inappropriate. Using a car to stop a cyclist by putting it in front of it, albeit at low speed, carried a risk if injury.

“The force was excessive.”

The officer was accused of breach of professional behaviour, use of force and discreditable conduct following his conviction after the incident in September 2021.

PC Jarvis was issued with a final written warning which will stay on his record for two years.