Corrupt UK policeman faces financial ruin

London: Disgraced police chief Ali Dizaei was facing financial ruin Wednesday night after being sacked from his £90,000 (Dh500,579)-a-year job at Scotland Yard.

The 47-year-old commander has remained a police officer since starting a four-year jail term for corruption nearly two months ago.

But on Wednesday the Metropolitan Police Authority dismissed him with "immediate effect" and announced plans to strip him of much of his gold-plated police pension.

With the permission of the Home Secretary, officials hope to claw back several hundred thousand pounds from the disgraced policeman's pension pot.

As Dizaei was being fired yesterday, it emerged he had been due to face disciplinary proceedings over the Daily Mail's revelations that he had a corrupt relationship with bogus race lawyer, Shahrokh Mireskandari. Police inquiry by the deputy head of West Midlands Police, Phil Gormley, which, according to sources, totally vindicated our story.

But his corruption conviction has made it unnecessary to bring misconduct proceedings against him over his links to Mireskandari.

For his own safety, Dizaei is in Usk sex offenders' prison — which specialises in vulnerable inmates — in Monmouthshire, South Wales, after being found guilty in February of abusing his police position to bully a young businessman.

He assaulted and falsely arrested Iraqi Waad Al Baghdadi, 24, after the businessman asked for £600 he was owed for creating a website showcasing Dizaei's career.

The decision to sack Dizaei was rubber-stamped yesterday after a disciplinary tribunal held in secret last Friday.

Until the ruling he had remained a Met officer, though without pay and without police powers.

Members of the MPA want to order Dizaei to forfeit his pension using powers handed to them under the Police Pensions Regulations 1987. But first the Home Secretary must agree his crimes were "gravely injurious to the interests of the State" or liable to lead to a loss of confidence in police.

After 24 years in the police, Dizaei is currently entitled to a lump sum payout of about £200,000 and an index-linked pension of about £30,000 a year when he reaches the age of 60.