A Metropolitan Police officer has been sacked after pretending to be on duty to get backstage at All Points East festival.
PC Hasnain Awan had worked a shift for the force at the festival in Victoria Park on August 28, 2021.
A misconduct panel heard how he was given a wristband to enable him to enter the festival and perform police duties.
The next day, PC Awan was off duty but attended along with a friend who was not a police officer.
PC Awan entered the festival through the “accreditation desk” where he lied to staff by claiming he required a new wrist band, as his own wristband had been seized as evidence after becoming stained with blood.
He successfully obtained the second wristband, which was given to his friend. Both were then able to enter the festival without paying the £95 per person entrance fee.
Later that day, PC Awan sought to gain entry to a restricted, backstage area using his Met Police Service warrant card.
He then attempted to put himself on duty by contacting a Met colleague and asking to change shifts.
When Inspector May-Robinson, responsible for policing at the festival, spoke with PC Awan about his actions, he claimed that he had told festival staff that he was not on duty that day.
He also sought to mislead Insp May-Robinson by suggesting that festival staff had been prepared to allow his friend free entry into the festival despite being aware that he was neither a police officer nor contractor.
The panel concluded that PC Awan’s actions amounted to gross misconduct.
They wrote: “By his own admission he lied on more than one occasion which the panel has found was for his own self-interest, that he knew exactly what he was doing and given this repeated behaviour is indicative of an attitudinal issue.”
PC Awan had made “repeated attempts to conceal his wrongdoing”, they wrote, by “involving another officer in swapping his shift and then by lying to Inspector May-Robinson”.
“He did not make open admissions at an early stage but rather initially sought to create yet another account and justification for his actions which, by his admissions and apologies, demonstrates that this too was a fabrication.”
They added: “This continuation of inappropriate behaviour when he should have realised that his actions were improper is a significant aggravating factor as it demonstrates his attitude of seeking to avoid responsibility when put in a difficult or challenging situation.”
PC Awan resigned on February 19 this year, but the panel stressed that he would have been fired had he not already stepped down.
