EXACTLY how close Grahame Maxwell came to being sacked by North Yorkshire Police may never be revealed.

Had the police authority deemed his admission of gross misconduct was sufficient grounds for dismissal, he would have become the first chief constable to have lost his job for disciplinary reasons since 1977.

Mr Maxwell, who joined the force in 2007 and has more than 25 years’ experience, comes from a policing family.

His distinguished career was put at risk by a recruitment exercise, launched by the force in February last year, in which it planned to employ up to 70 new officers.

Almost 500,000 potential applicants got in touch.

To cope with the weight of interest, a system was devised whereby people who had managed to reach a call handler, but had subsequently been cut off, were contacted again.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation found that Mr Maxwell made a callback to a member of his extended family, as part of a media photocall, despite the fact that the relative was not entitled to it.

Deputy chief constable Adam Briggs, who retired earlier this year, was also implicated in the investigation.

He admitted a minor error of judgement in failing to advise Mr Maxwell against authorising a call-back being made to a member of Mr Briggs’ family.

She, like Mr Maxwell’s relative, was not entitled to receive the call-back, as she had failed in her attempts to get through to the hotline.

Two members of police staff have already been sacked in connection with the recruitment exercise, while a police officer has also received a final warning.

In a statement, Mr Maxwell’s solicitor, Kingsley Napley, said: “The chief constable at no time intended to breach or knowingly breached professional standards and did not intend to confer any improper advantage on another person.

“He is sincerely sorry and saddened that a very difficult week resulted in errors of judgement, but continues to lead and wishes only to focus on doing his best for the force in his position as its chief constable.”

In his ten-page report on the investigation, IPCC commissioner Nicholas Long accused the chief constable of an “unacceptable attempt to discredit the investigation’’, with the police authority also accusing the married fatherof- one of pursuing “spurious legal remedies and unsustainable arguments” in his defence.

Mr Long said: ‘’The chief constable and his deputy are the two most senior officers 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 Long also addressed the reasons for holding the hearing in private.

He said: “I did consider whether the hearing should be in public. In principle, I believed it should.

“However, [this] requires extensive consultation which can be time-consuming.”

John Blackie, a senior member of North Yorkshire County Council, said Mr Maxwell could consider himself “exceedingly fortunate”

to still have a job.

He said: “I am absolutely amazed at this punishment. I think most people would have expected the police authority to have shown him the door.

“The chief constable’s record needs to be absolutely impeccable, beyond reproach, as he is the person to whom all police officers and staff look up to.”

Thirsk and Malton MP Anne McIntosh offered words of support to the chief constable.

She said: “His employer is best placed to decide what the punishment should be.

“I can only speak as I find, and when I have cause to take up cases with him, he has looked into them very seriously.”

Mr Maxwell, whose father was a policeman in neighbouring County Durham, started his career with Cleveland Police, based in Middlesbrough, working his way up to chief superintendent, before transferring to North Yorkshire in 2000.

The final warning against Mr Maxwell, who had a previously unblemished record, will remain on his file for 18 months.