Skiving police officer caught flying to Turkey on holiday after calling in sick

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A lying police officer who told his boss he was too sick for duty on the same day he flew out to Turkey for a holiday was caught red-handed when he returned to the UK.

Raja Khan, of Leicestershire Police, was met by police as he got off the plane at London Stansted Airport after suspicions were raised over his alleged illness, said The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

The former constable had first told his line manager he was feeling sick while on a rest day in October last year, two days before he was next scheduled to be on duty. But on the same evening he flew out to Istanbul.

He was contacted again by his boss on the day of his shift, before he texted back saying he was too ill to work, an IOPC disciplinary hearing on Wednesday was told.

He was then asked to complete a sickness form, which was filled in by a third party from the UK using the police officer’s email address.

Mr Khan was then greeted by police when he returned to Stansted, the hearing heard. He was arrested before the decision was made not to pursue criminal charges.

Following his resignation from the force in February, the hearing ruled that he would have been dismissed had he still been serving.

He was found to have breached British police staff’s standards for professional behaviour, which require serving officers to be “honest, act with integrity and do not compromise or abuse their position”.

Leicestershire Police Chief Constable Rob Nixon said: “This gross misconduct severely undermines the standards and reputation of the police service.

“Former PC Khan deliberately misled the force and his colleagues and also compromised the security of information on police systems.”

IOPC director of operations Steve Noonan added: “[PC Khan] was dishonest about his absence from work and compounded that by allowing an unauthorised person to access his police laptop.

“Such conduct has no place in policing and he will now be placed on the barred list, preventing him from future employment with the service.”