A policeman who was cleared of indecent assault has been kicked out of the force for bringing discredit to the service.

PC Andrew Shearer, 34, was sacked by Assistant Chief Constable of Cleveland Bryan Bell following a four-day hearing last week.

Last year, PC Shearer was cleared by a Leeds Crown Court jury after a 21-year-old Middlesbrough woman claimed he had groped and molested her in the back of a police van while carrying out inquiries into a burglary.

The officer, who lives in Stockton and has two young children, had been moved to Middlesbrough from Redcar following a disciplinary hearing in June 2000 into a string of offences against shop girls in Redcar town centre.

In one store, management ordered that he should not be left alone with female staff while in another, a manager asked him to leave after his crude language shocked a young assistant. Other shop girls complained he had used crude language, groped them and repeatedly asked for sex.

But rather than sacking him then, Cleveland Chief Constable Barry Shaw fined PC Shearer £600, cut his pay and ordered that he was moved to Middlesbrough.

Just ten weeks later, he was arrested following the alleged incident in the police van.

Yesterday, a spokesman for Cleveland Police said: "A police officer has appeared before a misconduct panel presided over by Assistant Chief Constable Bryan Bell. The officer faced breaches relating to bringing discredit upon the police service. The panel found the breaches proven and dismissed the officer from the service."

* A 21-year-old woman from Hemlington, Middlesbrough, is considering suing Mr Shearer, her solicitor confirmed last night.

Scott Taylor, of Watson Woodhouse Solicitors, said the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was waiting for a response from Chief Constable Barry Shaw to a letter she has put in for civil action against Mr Shearer.

The woman was said to be furious that the jury was not told of the disciplinary offences involving women.

The offences were never pursued further because the shop girl victims were said to be too traumatised to give evidence in open court.