A London police officer has been sacked for trying to get a hug from a lone jogger using a warrant card

PC Imran Aftab was originally given a written warning for abusing his position for sexual purposes, but the British Transport Police (BTP) successfully overturned the decision and he has now been dismissed from the police force.

In April 2020, Aftab parked his car off duty and approached a woman who was jogging before using his warrant card to try to speak to her.

He told the woman she looked “too curvy to be Asian,” and before leaving, Aftab asked the woman for a hug, a 2021 Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) hearing heard.

The panel was also shown evidence of a text the woman had sent to her friend at the time of the incident which read: “Help me”.

Following an investigation by BTP’s Professional Standards Department and the IOPC, Aftab appeared at the public misconduct hearing in May 2021, where an independent panel found him guilty of gross misconduct.

They decided that instead of being fired, he would receive a final written warning.

But BTP disagreed with that decision and immediately challenged the sanction in the High Court.

After a court review hearing, the judge announced his written verdict on Friday. He ruled that the panel’s decision was irrational and would be overturned.

Aftab is now officially discharged from the force.

He attempted to claim in the Supreme Court that he was a “victim of the times we live in today”, but the judge ruled there could be “only one sane and reasonable disciplinary measure” for his conduct and that BTP “It is right to state that this procedure reflects a real and current national concern about the behavior of male police officers towards single women.”

The judge explained that it was his “own decision to approach a lonely woman and to indulge in prejudiced racial stereotypes and sexualized language, among other disturbing traits of his behavior that have doomed his police career.”

Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi said on Friday: “There is no place for someone like Imran Aftab in policing.

“The use of a warrant to influence a single woman for the purpose of sexually enriching an officer is a total abuse of police powers and so seriously undermines public confidence that it destroys the very fabric of consent policing.

“It is totally unforgivable that a woman should feel so intimidated by the actions of a police officer that she feels compelled to text her friend asking for help.

“That’s why we were so determined to make sure he didn’t serve another day as a police officer, and I’m delighted the judge agreed to our challenge today.”