A disciplinary inquiry has determined that a police constable who flew to Turkey on a week-long vacation and declared unwell would have been fired if he had been on the force at the time.
According to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), ex Pc Raja Khan has been found guilty of gross misconduct. He was detained by onlookers on October 11, 2018, upon his return aircraft landing at London Stansted Airport.
Police officer Guilty Of Gross Misconduct By Pulling In Sickie For Turkey Holiday
After a Leicestershire Police inquiry that was overseen by the IOPC, a panel led by the chief constable of the county last week found the former officer guilty of misconduct.
Mr Khan, who resigned from the force in February, breached standards of professional behaviour governing honesty and integrity, confidentiality, orders and instructions, and discreditable conduct, the panel found.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the IOPC said the inquiry into the officer found that he reported in sick on October 5 while on a rest day, two days before his next shift.
Evidence also indicated that he flew out to Istanbul for a holiday the same evening.
On October 8 Pc Khan was contacted by his line manager and replied by text, saying he was too ill to work, and was given the out-of-hours number to call the sickness line and sent guidance to complete a sickness form, the IOPC said.
He then got a third party to access his police laptop back at home, submit the sickness form on his behalf and send an email from his work address to the line manager confirming this had all been done.
Commenting after the hearing, IOPC director of operations Steve Noonan said: “Pc Khan’s behaviour fell well below the standards expected of a police officer.
“He was dishonest about his absence from work and compounded that by allowing an unauthorised person to access his police laptop.
“In doing so he failed to treat confidential information with respect.
“Such conduct has no place in policing and he will now be placed on the barred list preventing him from future employment with the service.”
Pc Khan was arrested and interviewed on October 16, but a decision was made not to make a referral to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider criminal charges against the officer.