- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Chandrashekar Bhat
A FORMER South Wales Police officer has been jailed for making false reports about a female student at Swansea University that he had become fixated with.
Cardiff Crown Court on Friday (13) ordered Abubakar Masum, 24, to undergo imprisonment for three years and six months.
He made multiple reports saying the student was involved in drug dealing and had firearms at her property.
The court heard that his false claims resulted in armed officers attending her home to look for a gun. Another false claim was that she was involved in a plot to shoot a man over a debt.
Suspicions were raised when it was noted that the anonymous caller appeared to be familiar with police work. This led to an investigation.
Masum was arrested by officers from the anti-corruption unit of the police and it was discovered that he had been using the police computer system to gather information for the calls.
He was charged with two separate offences of “doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice”.
Both charges related to Masum making a series of false anonymous reports. A third charge related to securing unauthorised access to computer material. Masum was convicted of all three charges.
John Griffiths of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Masum deliberately abused his position of power as a police officer.
“The potential consequences of his actions were extremely serious. Having heard the strength of the evidence presented by the CPS, the jury convicted Masum and he has been brought to justice for his grave breach of trust.”
Masum was remanded in custody in March after he was convicted of the offences and chief constable Jeremy Vaughan dismissed him from service with immediate effect.
“The offence of perverting the course of public justice is particularly serious and increases the seriousness of the misconduct. There can be no doubt that PC Masum’s criminal conviction has an adverse impact on public confidence in policing,” Vaughan said.
