Former Greater Manchester Police inspector would have been dismissed for undertaking work at Qatar World Cup without permission

A former Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officer will be barred from policing after taking up a job to work at the Qatar World Cup in 2022 while claiming to be on a career break.

Following an investigation directed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and conducted by GMP’s Anti-Corruption Unit, gross misconduct was found proven against former Inspector Tariq Butt. A disciplinary panel led by a legally qualified chair today ruled that Insp Butt would have been dismissed had he not already resigned.

A three-day hearing organised by the force, which concluded on Thursday 19 September, found the officer had breached the standards of behaviour for discreditable conduct, confidentiality, honesty and integrity and orders and instructions. He will now be placed on the police barred list.

The investigation found that on 9 June 2020, the former GMP inspector applied for a career break from the force for childcare reasons and in order to go travelling but had already had an offer to work in Qatar.

Former Insp Butt failed to inform GMP of the offer and in September 2020, he started working for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Safety & Security Operations Committee. 

During the investigation, the career break policy was reviewed which confirmed officers needed to obtain the permission of the Chief Constable before undertaking paid employment or a business interest whilst on a career break and no such permission was granted.

Enquiries undertaken uncovered that in January 2021 while visiting the UK, former Inspector Butt went to Astley Bridge Police Station and used a computer to access restricted documents relating to police deployments at major sporting and music events. After being unable to download the documents onto an external USB drive, he emailed the documents to his personal account.

The panel also heard that in March 2021, Insp Butt informed the Child Maintenance Service that his financial circumstances had not changed and was still entitled to a ‘nil assessment’. This was despite payments received from the Qatari employment, none of which was declared to GMP or the Child Maintenance Service.

Steve Noonan, IOPC Director of Operations, said: “Former Inspector Butt has shown a complete disregard for the rules and acted dishonestly for his own personal gain. In doing so, he let down his colleagues and risked seriously undermining public confidence. 

“To ensure that the public receive the best possible service, and in order to prevent conflicts of interest, police officers are subject to additional restrictions; needing permission before undertaking further paid employment or a business interest. Knowing that such a permission was not in place, Inspector Butt flouted the rules while claiming to be on a career break.

“This was compounded by the fact the former officer went on to access restricted documents and a failure to declare his true financial circumstances. The actions of Inspector Butt fell well below the values and standards that are expected, lacking integrity and compromising the trust placed in officers.

“Today’s decision sends a clear message that this behaviour and wilful breach of standards has no place in policing and he will now be barred from working for the police in future.” 

Following the investigation, which began in September 2021 and concluded in May 2022, a file was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider any criminal charges. The CPS confirmed in October 2022 it would not pursue a prosecution.