Former Met officer sentenced in court after viewing police records for personal use

A former Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officer, who intentionally accessed police records of people known to him without any legitimate purpose, has received a suspended prison sentence and been ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

Mohammed Sardar, aged 31, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court today after pleading guilty in September 2023 to five charges under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 following an investigation directed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). He received a nine-month prison sentence, which is suspended for two years.

Between 2018 and 2021, while attached to the East Basic Command Unit, PC Sardar repeatedly accessed computer systems to view police records related to people who were known to him, without any legitimate policing purpose.

The PC viewed investigation records related to these individuals, one of whom was a close associate who had been charged and was awaiting trial, and did a check on police systems of his own vehicle after it was involved in a collision.

The MPS first became aware of allegations involving PC Sardar in June 2021. The force made a conduct referral to the IOPC and we began a directed investigation the following month, with enquiries being carried out by the MPS’ Anti-Corruption and Abuse Command under our direction.

Following the conclusion of the investigation in June 2022, a file of evidence was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, which authorised the charges.

IOPC director of operations Steve Noonan said: “Police computer systems contain a vast amount of sensitive information about individuals under investigation and the public should rightly expect that all police officers treat this information in strict confidence and only access these records for policing purposes.

“PC Sardar had no legitimate reason to access records of individuals known to him and his actions have the potential to damage the public’s confidence in police officers.

“Any officer who intentionally accesses police records for personal use has no place in policing.”

At the conclusion of our investigation we also determined that PC Sardar should face a misconduct hearing for potential gross misconduct.

In December 2023, an accelerated misconduct hearing was held where gross misconduct was found proven for breaching the standard of professional behaviour related to discreditable conduct. He was dismissed without notice from the MPS and has been placed on the barred list, preventing him from working in policing in the future.