Met cop who pressurised woman to take rap for crash involving wife and did dodgy PNC check keeps job

A MET Police officer who turned up at the scene of a road crash involving his wife and pressured the other driver to say it was her fault before getting an inappropriate PNC done on her has been allowed to keep his job.

Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick has spent the last few days trying to regain public trust and clean up the image of the force after a series of scandals, including the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens.

However, on Monday, PC Mahipalsinh Solanki, based at West Area Command Unit, was let off with a written warning despite being found guilty of gross misconduct in connection with the road accident two years ago.

The independent disciplinary panel said his actions were "a serious lapse in integrity," but not dishonest.

He answered allegations at a Met disciplinary panel that his conduct amounted to breaches of the standards of professional behaviour in respect of honesty and integrity and authority, respect and courtesy.

It was alleged that on November 4 2019, while on duty in full uniform, PC Solanki attended the accident where one of the two parties involved was his wife.

It was alleged that while at the scene PC Solanki failed to identify himself at any time while dealing with the other member of the public involved.

It was also alleged that as the husband of the other driver, he failed to inform a supervisor that he knew one of the parties to the accident, improperly asked questions of the member of the public as to how the accidents had occurred, putting pressure on her and telling her and/or attributing to her that she was at fault for the crash.

It was also alleged that he contacted a colleague and without mentioning the involvement of his wife in the situation, asked him to perform a PNC check on the member of the public’s motor vehicle with no proper policing purpose.

A public notice following the hearing said: "The matters set out above were said to amount to gross misconduct, in that they were so serious as to justify dismissal.

"The panel determined in the particular circumstances of this case that PC Solanki had breached the standards of professional behaviour in respect of honesty and integrity but that his conduct that day was not dishonest but amounted to a serious lapse in Integrity.

"The panel found that PC Solanki had also breached the standards of professional behaviour in respect of authority, respect and courtesy and that both breaches were proved at the level of gross misconduct.

"The panel determined that the least sanction it could impose in the particular circumstances of this case was a final written warning."

Commander Pete Gardner, in charge of policing in West Area, said after the hearing: “PC Solanki completely abused his position by failing to disclose his wife was one of the parties involved in the collision. The public quite rightly expect the highest standards of integrity from police officers and PC Solanki attempted to abuse his policing powers for personal gain."