Former West Midlands police officer flouted Covid rules with London trip because he was 'bored'
A former West Midlands Police Constable who broke coronavirus restrictions by travelling to London because he was ‘bored’ – and later lied about self-isolating – would have been sacked had he not resigned.
Ex-PC Mohammed Miah drove to the capital during lockdown on November 15, 2020, but was stopped by Met officers who asked him why he had made the journey.
He then produced his warrant card, but did not claim to be on police business. He said he’d made the trip to London because he was "bored" during lockdown.
However, when questioned by a supervisor on his return to work he lied about the trip and claimed he’d self-isolated from 15-23 November due to displaying Covid symptoms.
PC Miah, who joined West Midlands police in 2020 and worked at the Lloyd House headquarters checking incident logs, resigned from the force in June this year, but misconduct proceedings continued.
At a misconduct hearing on Friday in front of an independent panel, chairman Tanveer Rakhim said that former PC Miah’s behaviour amounted to discreditable conduct, and that he’d breached standards of honesty and integrity.
The panel ruled that he would have been dismissed had he not resigned already.
Mr Rakhim said: “The Covid restrictions were known, it was well publicised.
"We expect a police officer to be aware of them. Despite these, PC Miah still drove to London when there was no reasonable excuse."
“We must also take into consideration misconduct that undermines discipline and good order in the police service," he continued.
“In this case we found that deceiving fellow police officers and lying to colleagues and supervisors undermines discipline and good order in the police service.”
Former PC Miah is now being added to the national barred list, preventing him from working in policing in the future.
