Police have apologised to a call centre worker shot during a firearms awareness training course and admitted the incident was “embarrassing”.

Call centre worker Keith Tilbury, 51, was shot by Pc Dave Micklethwaite, 52, who accidentally slipped a live bullet into a Magnum .44 revolver during a training day in Kidlington in May 2007.

The force was fined £40,000 by Southwark Crown Court today and ordered to pay £25,000 costs after admitting breaching health and safety regulations.

Pc Micklethwaite was fined £8,000 and told to pay £8,000 costs.

Deputy Chief Constable Francis Habgood said: “After a lengthy investigation I am pleased that the judicial process has concluded today. Thames Valley Police pleaded guilty at the first hearing and have always accepted that the shooting of Keith Tilbury on 30 May 2007 should never have happened.

“Pc Micklethwaite pleaded guilty last Friday, to one charge under section 7 of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 at Southwark Crown Court.

“We accept the sentence passed down by the court today, which was a fine of £40,000. PC Micklethwaite was fined £8,000. A decision will now be taken as to whether PC Micklethwaite will face internal disciplinary proceedings into his conduct on the day of the shooting.

“This case has personally affected several people, none more so than Keith Tilbury and his family. The Chief Constable offered her apology to Keith and his family as soon as this happened and PC Micklethwaite apologised at court last week. I want to reiterate the apology from Thames Valley Police to Keith.

“I agree with His Honourable Judge Loraine-Smith, who said that this has been an embarrassing episode for Thames Valley Police, but can reassure everybody that we have changed our procedures and were recently described as a model Force on firearms training issues by an independent review. This point was made by the prosecution at the court hearing.

“Mr Tilbury was taking part in a Basic Firearms Awareness session with ten other Police Enquiry Centre (PEC) Operators delivered by PC Micklethwaite. At that time PC Micklethwaite was an experienced firearms officer and trainer. The session was provided as part of an induction for Operators. The intention was to enable operators to respond appropriately to firearms related calls and enquiries.

“Health and Safety legislation requires organisations to ensure that their staff are not exposed to risks that could reasonably have been avoided and we take this responsibility very seriously. Our early guilty plea was an acceptance that additional control measures could have prevented the shooting.

“Immediately after the incident we introduced steps to prevent a similar incident and these have been endorsed by both the Independent Police Complaints Commission and the Health and Safety Executive.

“We reviewed the use and delivery of classroom based Basic Firearms Awareness Courses and as a result of the review, the use of accessible live ammunition of any kind was immediately banned from any classroom input, the Force armoury produced a locked plastic display case that permits classes to see but not access the ammunition, only de-activated weapons are used in classrooms and a new Procedure was written for delivering basic awareness and information sessions, which are all now delivered by two instructors.“