Trainee police officer faked positive lateral flow COVID-19 test to get time off

A trainee police officer has been banned from joining any force again after he was caught faking a positive COVID-19 test in order to get time off work.

Ahmed Anwari drew red lines on a lateral flow test he had taken on 13 December, 2020, and sent a photo of the test to his manager after telling them of his positive result, a misconduct hearing was told.

However, the Lancashire Constabulary recruit had made an unconvincing attempt at falsifying the test, and suspicions were raised amongst his superiors.

The hearing was told: “It was clear that test had been manually altered with a drawn red line”.

He was asked to do another test on a Microsoft Teams video call, and once again failed to convince them it was positive.

When confronted, Anwari admitted falsifying the results and lying about them, stating he did it so he could stay at home under the then self-isolation rules.

Anwari quit the force the following day, but misconduct proceedings were launched.

A public hearing was heard at Ormskirk Police Station on Monday, in which Chief Constable Chris Rowley ruled that Anwari would have been sacked if he had not already have quit.

Anwari was told the proceedings had been launched against him, but wrote to the panel to tell them he would not be attending and would not send representation.

Ch Con Rowley 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.”