Officer fired for moonlighting against orders
A Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officer has been fired for working as a private hire vehicle driver while on sick leave despite having his application to do so rejected.
Police Constable Farzad Ahmed of the MPS Communications Command applied to his line manager in December 2015 for permission to work as a driver on his rest days, but this was turned down.
In spite of this, after being involved in a road traffic collision while on duty on March 23, 2016, he worked in that capacity for 19 days while on sick leave, between March 24 and April 19 that year. He carried out 251 trips in total.
Following a two-day gross misconduct hearing on November 1/2, all allegations of breaching the standards of professional behaviour in respect of ‘honesty and integrity’, ‘orders and instructions’ and ‘duties and responsibilities’ were proven.
PC Ahmed was “dismissed without notice”.
