City banker posed as motorbike policeman to get to work on time
A CITY banker speeded up his daily commute by dressing as a policeman and riding a motorbike with a blue light, a court heard yesterday.
Darren Emanuel, 46, donned a white helmet, a high-visibility police jacket and a tabard with the words “Polite notice Think Bike”.
His former South Yorkshire Police BMW R1200 motorcycle boasted a Royal Corps of Transport crest on the front screen.
Below the rear number plate was a sticker with the letters ER – Elizabeth Regina – and the sides were decorated with a police-style black-and-white Battenberg check.
The bike even had a raised blue emergency light although it was no longer working, Hendon magistrates in north London heard.
Emanuel, a banking compliance consultant, travelled 50 miles to and from home on the bike every day.
He was caught redhanded by a real traffic officer as he rode down Park Lane, Mayfair, last June. PC John Harding said: “If you look at that in your rear view mirror, you would think that is a police motorcycle.
“Police motorcyclists will tell you what happens – they move out the way to allow us to carry out our work.”
Emanuel was stopped just weeks after the London Bridge terror atrocity on June 3 and PC Harding asked him what he thought he was doing.
Emanuel told the officer: “You know how it is, I want to be safe driving in London”, the court was told. Emanuel, of Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, was found guilty of wearing a police uniform with intent to deceive.
He was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay £650 costs, plus a £20 victim surcharge.
He said he bought the motorbike on eBay from a former policeman who told him he had been riding it as an ex-officer for several years and had never been challenged.
He got the “polite” tabard from the seller free of charge.
Emanuel said: “I have commuted more than 1,000 miles on that bike and must have gone past countless traffic police officers in that time and none of them had any issue with me.” Chairman of the bench Grant McCrostie told him: “In our view, the police jacket, together with the look of the vehicle, combined to produce a look which a member of the public would be deceived into believing that you were a police officer performing his duty.
“We accept that this may not have been your intention to deceive but that was the effect.
“Particularly at the moment, it is really important that the public have confidence in the police and your actions undermined that.”