Police trainee drew lines on lateral flow test to get time off

A TRAINEE police officer drew red lines on a Covid test to try and get time off work, a misconduct hearing was told.

Ahmed Anwari told his training officer in December that he had to stay at home after a positive lateral flow test.

However, when he was asked to send a photograph as proof, it was clear it had been “manually altered with drawn red lines”. The Lancashire Constabulary officer was then invited to take a Covid test during a video meeting, which he falsely said was positive.

When confronted, Mr Anwari admitted falsifying the results, saying he did it to stay at home under self-isolation rules. He resigned a day later.

Chairing yesterday’s hearing in Ormskirk, Chief Constable Chris Rowley found Mr Anwari had breached standards of professional behaviour and in doing so had committed gross misconduct. He said that “had Mr Anwari still been a member of Lancashire Constabulary he would have been dismissed”.

Mr Anwari did not attend the hearing and was not legally represented.