A police officer said he would bomb Manchester’s Curry Mile ‘to get rid of all these bad people’ after finding an electricity meter had been bypassed in a raid at an Asian business, a disciplinary hearing has been told.
PC Paul Cocker later apologised for his foul-mouthed rant aimed at Shakeel Ahmed, the owner of Choice Jewellers on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme , it was said.
It was among 200 businesses visited by police, the fire service and Electricity North West in 2013.
The hearing was told many had their electricity supplies disconnected after it was discovered that meters had been tampered with or bypassed.
Mr Ahmed secretly recorded the conversation when police and other officials visited his cellar.
On the audio played at the hearing, PC Cocker can be heard becoming increasingly agitated towards Mr Ahmed, who appears to argue that the meter had been tampered with before he became the owner.
When the owner attempts to counter allegations he ‘siphoned off electricity’, PC Cocker tells him ‘no you are not f***ing right, listen’.
Later the PC says: “Your pants are down and you’re getting your a***e smacked.”
The officer then tells the businessman: “You are employing illegal immigrants? Correct. You are stealing electricity? Correct. We will see you in court. It doesn’t matter (what you say). You make my blood boil.”
He accuses the businessman of lying and says ‘you are as bent as a nine bob note’ and - laughing - he adds: “You want to sack your electrician. That’s all I can say.”
Then he tells Mr Ahmed: “You know what I want to do? Bomb the whole lot from f***ing Upper Lloyd Street to Upper Brook Street, get rid of all these bad people and start afresh. That’s you and everybody. You all p*** in the same pot.”
The hearing at GMP's Sedgley Park site was told that Mr Ahmed secretly recorded the encounter because of previous visits when the officer had been ‘rude and aggressive’.
PC Cocker later apologised for his rant, the hearing was told, but retired from Greater Manchester Police before a change in rules which would have obliged him to attend the disciplinary hearing. However, his colleague PC Christopher Schofield, has been compelled to answer a charge of gross misconduct. He denies using racist language and failing to act on his fellow officer’s conduct.
The hearing continues.
