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Trainee Lancashire Police officer faked positive lateral flow test in a bid to get time off

Mr Anwari's claim was eventually uncovered when he was asked to send a photograph of the test result as proof.

Emily Sergeant - 21st June 2022

A tribunal has heard this week that a trainee Lancashire Police officer faked having COVID-19 so that he could work from home.

The misconduct hearing heard yesterday of how Ahmed Anwari told his training officer at Lancashire Constabulary last December that he could not come in to work because of a positive lateral flow test result – but his claim was eventually uncovered when he was asked to send a photograph of the test result as proof.

It then became clear to the Constabulary upon receiving photographic proof that “the test had been manually altered with drawn red lines”, Mr Anwari’s disciplinary was told.

Once the Constabulary sensed that there may be an issue, the trainee officer was then invited to take another lateral flow test on a Microsoft Teams meeting, where he again falsely-claimed the result was positive.

When confronted about whether the test was genuine, he admitted to faking it and lying.

Mr Anwari explained that he drew lines on the lateral flow test so that he could stay at home under the then self-isolation COVID-19 rules.

He resigned from the force a day later.

Chairing the misconduct hearing in Ormskirk – which Mr Anwari chose not to attend and was not legally represented – Chief Constable Chris Rowley found that former officer 2568 Anwari had breached standards of professional behaviour and in doing so had committed gross misconduct.

Read more: Follow-up PCR tests scrapped for asymptomatic people who test positive on lateral flows

He said: “I find that had Mr Anwari still been a member of Lancashire Constabulary he would have been dismissed.

“Police officers must keep in mind at all times that the public expect them to maintain high standards of professional behaviour.”

Featured Image – John Cameron (via Unsplash)