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Manchester officer dismissed after panel finds racist remark
PC Mohammed Abid was dismissed after a Greater Manchester Police panel found he made a racist comment about a colleague’s hair and took part in a wider culture of mocking her accent. Abid denied the allegation, but the panel accepted the colleague’s account.
Accounts from both perspectives agree on the disciplinary outcome: a Greater Manchester Police officer was dismissed over conduct found to be racist, while he maintained that the allegation against him was untrue.
The case centred on a single remark about a colleague’s hair, but the panel concluded it formed part of a broader workplace pattern that left the officer feeling mocked and isolated.
PC Mohammed Abid was among six serving Greater Manchester Police officers dismissed without notice after a two-week misconduct hearing concerning conduct in the force’s Bury division. Two former officers were also found to have committed gross misconduct and were told they would have been dismissed had they still been employed.
The panel found that Abid told a female colleague, identified as PC Y, that her braided hair looked “like a mop.” It concluded that the comment related to her race and therefore constituted a racist remark. The hearing chair, Assistant Chief Officer Jonathan Roy, said there was “no reason not to disbelieve PC Y’s account,” despite Abid’s denial.1
Abid said he would not make such a comment and argued that PC Y was not telling the truth. The panel instead accepted her evidence, alongside findings that several officers had repeatedly mimicked her accent and laughed at what she said. PC Y told the hearing: “It was quite upsetting. It made me uncomfortable, nervous, quite anxious as well.”2
The panel described a “culture of mocking accents” in the unit, finding that the behaviour had become sufficiently normalised that newer team members adopted it within weeks. Six serving officers were dismissed and all eight officers found guilty of gross misconduct were placed on the College of Policing barred list, preventing future work in policing.
A ninth officer, Sergeant Adrian Bick, was found to have committed simple misconduct and received a final written warning. Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods said no employee should face discriminatory conduct from colleagues and praised PC Y for reporting her concerns.