Scotland Yard’s ‘most hated’ Brit Asian officer found guilty of abusing position, power

LONDON - A senior British Asian police officer of Scotland Yard, Commander Ali Dizaei, has been found guilty of abusing his position and power.

However, according to The Independent, the shaming of the police’s most senior Asian officer has been far from despondent. Rather it has been one of jubilation. There is a majority view that the man was corrupt for more than 10 years and has been finally exposed.

“The champagne corks are popping,” said one source close to the case.

While fellow officers do not generally welcome investigations into colleagues, there is no sympathy within the Met for Dizaei.

As one officer said: “Ali Dizaei is universally hated. He is not trusted and he is not a nice person. There will be no tears shed for him.”

Dizaei’s time at Scotland Yard was possibly the most controversy-ridden tenure by a senior police officer in recent times.

In his 11-year career in the force, Dizaei was suspended for four of them, faced two criminal prosecutions and was the subject of a host of allegations including using prostitutes, acting as an Iranian spy and misusing his police credit card.

Born in Tehran in 1962, Dizaei was brought up in a family steeped in policing with a father who headed the country’s traffic police and a grandfather who was an assistant commissioner. He claimed that police work was his destiny and joined Thames Valley Police in 1986. He was soon marked out as a rising star and was tipped by some to become the country’s first Asian chief constable.

He transferred to the Metropolitan Police as a superintendent in March 1999, when the force was badly in need of high-calibre ethnic minority officers.

But just a few months later, his problems began. In June senior officers were told of claims that Dizaei was associating with a drugs dealer and had intervened to quash a speeding fine. He was also alleged to have supported the passport application of a man linked to drugs.

An investigation, codenamed Operation Helios, began. It became the biggest investigation ever into a serving police officer. Dizaei was trailed, bugged and filmed, investigated for being a drug-taker, a threat to national security and a friend of traffickers and money launderers.

All of Dizaei’s phone conversations were intercepted. Undercover officers posed as bodybuilders at his gym and were told to befriend him. His line manager kept a diary of his movements. In all, at least 135 officers were utilised in the investigation into Dizaei.

As well as detectives from the Met, other agencies involved in Operation Helios included Special Branch, Beverly Hills Police and even the Canadian Mounties.

But the marathon inquiry ended in ignominy for the Metropolitan Police. When Dizaei was eventually brought to court it was on charges of lying during a police investigation into his car being vandalised.

Dizaei claimed that the charges were racially motivated, and when the extent of the police investigation into him was revealed in court he was cleared.

Faced with a public relations disaster the Met reinstated Dizaei, allowed him to write a highly critical book about the failed investigation and placed him on a fast-track promotion scheme. In March 2008 he was promoted to the rank of commander - but his career would be over just six months later. (ANI)