Former inspector sacked for working at World Cup during ‘career break’
A former officer who dishonestly undertook work for the 2022 Qatar World Cup while claiming to be on a career break would have been dismissed had he not already resigned.
The former Greater Manchester Police (GMP) inspector, Tariq Butt, who was based at the force’s Sedgley Park officer training complex, was found guilty of gross misconduct following a three-day disciplinary hearing that concluded on Thursday (September 19).
The hearing was told that he had applied for a three-year career break from the force for childcare reasons and to go travelling, stating he would not work and would be financially supported by his family.
However, an investigation by GMP’s Anti-Corruption Unit, directed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), found that on June 9, 2020, the former GMP inspector had already had an offer to work as a contracted security adviser for the Qatari police around the time of the 2022 football World Cup.
Former Insp Butt failed to inform GMP of the offer and in September 2020, he started working for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Safety and Security Operations Committee.
GMP said during the investigation, the career break policy was reviewed, which confirmed officers needed to obtain the permission of the chief constable before undertaking paid employment or a business interest while on a career break and no such permission was granted.
Inquiries undertaken uncovered that in January 2021, while visiting the UK, former Inspector Butt went to Astley Bridge police station and used a computer to access restricted documents relating to police deployments at major sporting and music events. After being unable to download the documents onto an external USB drive, he emailed the documents to his personal account.
The panel also heard that in March 2021, Insp Butt informed the Child Maintenance Service that his financial circumstances had not changed and was still entitled to a ‘nil assessment’. This was despite payments received from the Qatari employment, none of which was declared to GMP or the Child Maintenance Service.
The disciplinary panel found the officer had breached the standards of behaviour for discreditable conduct, confidentiality, honesty and integrity and orders and instructions, and he would have been dismissed had he not already resigned from the force. He will now be placed on the police barred list.
Butt is now one of more than 100 officers be dismissed from the force since Chief Constable Stephen Watson was appointed in March 2021 and pledge to “root out and boot out” officers not fit to wear the uniform.
“We are keen to ensure the people of Greater Manchester can have confidence in their police force, and over the last two years we have tripled the rate in which we’ve been dismissing officers whose actions risk undermining this trust,”the force said.
Detective Superintendent Steve Keeley, of GMP’s Anti-Corruption Unit, said: “It is clear that the actions of Tariq Butt demonstrated a complete disregard for the values of honesty and trust that we and the public rightly expect of our officers.
“He blatantly breached these values for his own personal gain and left the panel no option but to dismiss him from the force. If we cannot trust his actions then we certainly cannot expect the public to do so either.
“The discreditable conduct of officers like Butt undermine the professionalism and hard-work of thousands of officers across Greater Manchester every day, and we will continue to leave no stone unturned in pursuing those who breach our standards.”
Steve Noonan, IOPC Director of Operations, said: “Former Insp Butt has shown a complete disregard for the rules and acted dishonestly for his own personal gain. In doing so, he let down his colleagues and risked seriously undermining public confidence.
“To ensure that the public receive the best possible service, and in order to prevent conflicts of interest, police officers are subject to additional restrictions; needing permission before undertaking further paid employment or a business interest. Knowing that such a permission was not in place, Insp Butt flouted the rules while claiming to be on a career break.
“This was compounded by the fact the former officer went on to access restricted documents and a failure to declare his true financial circumstances.
“The actions of Insp Butt fell well below the values and standards that are expected, lacking integrity and compromising the trust placed in officers.
“Today’s decision sends a clear message that this behaviour and wilful breach of standards has no place in policing and he will now be barred from working for the police in future.”