A policewoman who secretly dated a Hells Angels enforcer while he was on bail for a violent crime and a sergeant who maintained close ties to a criminal bikie boss for more than a decade both avoided dismissal in cases that angered senior police.

Constable Lauren Conte was allowed to remain in her job despite being found guilty of illegally accessing the force's confidential database to snoop on an associate of Hells Angels Nomads sergeant-at-arms Paul Peterson.

Constable Conte, who allegedly met Peterson while he was facing serious charges in relation to a violent kidnapping, escaped conviction but was given a 12-month good behaviour bond in 2011 by a Ballarat magistrate, who told her she had ''ruined a promising career''.

But last year a police disciplinary board decided to reinstate the suspended constable in a move understood to have infuriated senior police, including Chief Commissioner Ken Lay.