AN inquiry has found mistakes were made by a police officer who only searched four minutes for a missing man who was later found dead in a park lake.

An investigation by the police watchdog has published its report into the search for Gavin Egan in the early hours of February 24 last year at Scarborough’s Peasholm Park, in freezing temperatures.

It found evidence of errors in the actions of the police officer called to search for him.

Mr Egan, 34, had been pulled from the lake before 3.30am by a dog walker, who then left him on some paving slabs as he ran home to call an ambulance on his mobile phone.

He then returned back to the scene with a throw to keep Mr Egan warm, but he was no longer there.

An ambulance crew arrived and they helped search the park for him, before ambulance staff contacted police at 4am.

An Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation found PC Hardie searched for just four minutes before leaving the area, she did not seek assistance from colleagues and the incident log was closed soon after.

Mr Egan’s body was found in the lake at 11.30am that day.

The IPCC investigator thought PC Hardie had “a case to answer for gross misconduct” for not taking all reasonable steps to investigation the incident, but the IPCC Commissioner subsequently agreed with North Yorkshire Police that the allegations amounted to misconduct and PC Hardie was issued with a written warning.

Mr Egan’s mother, Lesley Shields, says she felt let down by North Yorkshire Police by the actions of officers on the night itself and since her son died.

Mrs Shields wasn’t informed of her son’s death by police until 4.30pm the next day, more than 24 hours after he had been found dead and after the news had been broken by a concerned member of the public who rang her.

The investigation found a misunderstanding between officers during shift handovers resulted in the delay in informing Mr Egan’s next of kin and did not find evidence of misconduct by any individual officer.

“I have been left very angry and disappointed at the way we have been treated, not only with regard to what happened on the night, but ever since and to this date by North Yorkshire Police,” she said.

“Firstly, I only found out that Gavin had died at 4pm the following day, not by the police, but by somebody else calling on the phone to offer me their condolences.

"It wasn’t until more than 28 hours after his body was discovered that I was finally visited by the police.

“It was also three days before the police told me that Gavin had actually been pulled from the lake earlier that night.

"Then, as a family we prepared for the inquest last November, only to be told the day before that PC Hardie would not be attending.

"Finally we have the inquest and we are made to feel like there is no remorse at all.”

Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick said he hoped Mr Egan's family had found some closure following the investigation.

"He said police were not the only emergency services at the scene and the coroner had recognised the search carried out was reasonable given information available at the time.