A Kirklees police officer has thanked his phenomenal 64,000 Twitter followers after his charity appeal for re-tweets went viral.

PC Scott Gardner @pc1010gardner pledged to give £50 to charity if he attracted 50,000 followers on Twitter before the end of the Bank Holiday weekend.

But what he now says was started as flippant tweet – on his unverified police Twitter account – has seen him attracting a whopping 64.1k followers in just three days!

He tweeted:

Scott told the Examiner: “It was a flippant comment in a tweet that I thought wouldn’t get more than a few hundred followers.

“Never in a million years did I think it would get to the target of 50,000 let alone beyond that. I’m still a bit shocked.”

Scott said an unexpected push came when his bosses Insp Andrew Lockwood, Supt Osman Khan, Chief Supt Steve Cotter and West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Dee Collins also made pledges if they hit the target

Pc Gardner

Scott said he was now looking to receive the ‘blue’ tick from West Yorkshire Police to show his twitter account is official.

He plans to use it to promote his new role as a training officer in Kirklees.