A Met Police officer who used fake flatshare adverts and women-only chat groups to target women in south London should be banned from policing, a disciplinary panel ruled.
Former PC Aminur Rashid was found to have run a “calculated and predatory” campaign to pursue sexual or romantic relationships with women, using lies and his status as a police officer to gain their trust.
Last Wednesday (May 20) a misconduct panel heard he posted bogus Facebook adverts for a room in a non‑existent four‑bed house in Clapham, falsely claiming to be “Raj, 26, an actuary in a bank” living with two female flatmates.
He then suggested meeting women, including a woman referred to as “Miss A”, in licensed premises away from the supposed address.
Rashid met Miss A after she responded to one of the adverts, kissed her the same night and soon tried to persuade her to have sex with him in a public place, before starting a sexual and romantic relationship with her, the panel found.
He used references to being a police officer – variously describing himself as a detective, an armed officer and someone who had escorted members of the royal family, none of which was true, the panel concluded.
Miss A told the hearing she trusted him more because of his job.
Separately, Rashid joined women‑only WhatsApp groups called “Girls time chatting” and “Girls Time outing” using his work mobile, introducing himself under the false identity “Sofie” to mislead members into believing he was a woman.
In one message he wrote: “Hey! I’m Sofie from Clapham, always down to meet new people, I love sports and travelling.”
The panel said this was predatory behaviour in a women‑only “safe space”.
In addition to his behaviour towards women, the panel found he repeatedly misused confidential police systems and equipment for his own purposes.
While under a formal direction not to be involved in any domestic abuse or sexual offence cases, he accessed multiple video clips on an internal evidence platform, including footage labelled “Roxy sexual touching”.
He was also found to have viewed material linked to the rapper Stormzy on the same system shortly after reading about the musician’s driving disqualification on a news website, with no legitimate policing reason to do so.
Rashid did not attend the hearing but in his written responses he accepted posting flatshare adverts in Facebook groups but said he was genuinely looking for people to rent a house or flat with.
The panel rejected that explanation, finding there was no real flat, that the Clapham room never existed and that the false details were lies used to meet women.
Rashid further argued that he was added into two “women‑only” WhatsApp groups by someone else and left them long before concerns were raised.
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On his data misuse, Rashid told investigators he sometimes watched pursuit footage on the Evidence.com system to develop and maintain his knowledge and skills.
He suggested he might have clicked on the “Roxy sexual touching” clip inadvertently when a preview appeared.
The panel concluded his actions amounted to gross misconduct, saying his dishonest and predatory behaviour towards women, and misuse of police systems, would seriously undermine public trust in the Met.
It ruled that had he still been serving he would have been dismissed without notice and said he should be placed on the barred list, effectively banning him from future work in policing.
