Pc accused of misconduct cleared

A POLICE officer accused of saying she knew two men were criminals because they were black has been cleared of all charges.

Pc Andra Serbanescu was also accused of saying an Asian man was the “type who would have a bomb”.

Avon and Somerset police had said the alleged comments from the officer could amount to gross misconduct.

An Avon and Somerset Police spokesperson said Pc Serbanescu has been “cleared of the allegations”, following a virtual misconduct hearing this week.

“The panel decided that the appropriate authority did not prove its case against the officer and that no disciplinary action will be taken,” he said.

Pc Serbanescu, who joined the force in March 2020, detained two men who were suspected of being involved in the supply of drugs and money laundering last July.

A notice for her misconduct hearing alleged that she told a colleague she knew they were going to arrest the men as soon as she saw them.

The force argued that Pc Serbanescu was implying she knew the two men were involved in criminality because they were black.

Later that month the officer spoke to an Asian man in North Street carrying what looked like a prayer mat who said he was waiting for the mosque to open at 4.15am.

Pc Serbanescu was accused of saying the man was “the type who would have a bomb”.

HOME-SHARING site Airbnb has posted a 3.9 billion dollar (£2.8bn) loss in the fourth quarter of 2020 as it suffered from the pandemic downturn in travel.

In results released on Thursday – Airbnb’s first as a publicly traded entity – the company took a charge of 2.8 billion dollar (£2bn) for stock compensation related to its flotation. A year earlier, Airbnb lost 352 million dollars (£251m).

Revenue fell 22 per cent to 859 million dollars (£613m) in the quarter that ended December 31. Nights booked fell 39 per cent from a year earlier.

Airbnb declined to offer a forecast for 2021 profit and revenue.

Company executives said they are upbeat about a recovery but said the unknown pace of vaccinations made it difficult to know how quickly people will be willing to travel.

The company did say revenue will not decline as much in the current quarter as it did in the fourth quarter of last year.

In late January, Airbnb said a survey it commissioned showed that just over half of Americans had already booked a trip or planned to travel this year.

Since the start of the pandemic, Airbnb has shifted its focus to beach towns and mountain destinations – outdoor places where the risk of contracting the coronavirus is perceived to be lower. The company expects rentals in big cities to come back last.

It has also slashed costs and jobs to ride out the pandemic, much like airlines and others in the travel industry.

CEO Brian Chesky said his company would benefit from changes in travel and jobs as many people work from somewhere other than the office – maybe a rental far from home.

“When travel comes back, we believe it will look different than before,” Mr Chesky said on a call with analysts.

“People are living more nomadically. Some people are taking longerterm stays, one or two months at a time in Airbnb.”

The company is counting on adding hosts. It believes that people who book long-term rentals will also turn to Airbnb to rent their empty homes.

For all of 2020, Airbnb lost nearly 4.6 billion dollars, including the charge for stock-based compensation.

That compared with a 2019 loss of 674 million dollars. Even as revenue increased, the company also lost money in 2017 and 2018 as it spent heavily on marketing and technology and added new lines to the business.