A former Metropolitan Police officer is facing a misconduct hearing after serious allegations emerged that he engaged with sex workers while on duty.
The case adds fresh scrutiny to Britain’s largest police force, which has been constantly criticised for a deeply hardwired culture of misogyny and corruption.
Imran Patel, who served as a police bobby with the Met, resigned last time following a series of complaints about his professional conduct, serving nine months.
Sources have verified he’s now under investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct( IOPC).
According to internal reports, Patel allegedly accessed adult websites and used sex workers while on shift in May 2022, the same period when Baroness Louise Casey was conducting an independent review into misconduct and cultural standards within the Metropolitan Police.
The Casey Review
The Casey Review, commissioned by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, was ordered in the wake of the shocking murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens.
The incident touched off civil outrage and brought long-standing concerns about misogyny in policing to the fore.
In her damning report, Casey concluded that the Met was “institutionally misogynistic.”
He stated: “Sarah Everard’s murder and other horrific crimes perpetrated by serving Met officers against women in London have shone a light on the shocking treatment of, and attitudes towards, women in the Met.”
Her review found widespread inequality within the force, revealing that “women are not treated equally in the workforce, with new women recruits resigning at four times the rate of all probationers; and a third of Met women we surveyed reported personally experiencing sexism at work, with 12% reporting directly experiencing sexual harassment or assault.”
The investigation into Patel is part of a broader effort by the IOPC to address systemic misconduct across the Met.
The watchdog preliminarily uncovered disturbing exchanges among officers at Charing Cross police station, where some joked about rape and gasconaded about visiting coitus workers.
Despite those exposures, a disquieting gesture appears to have persisted. A BBC Panorama undercover disquisition vented before this time exposed ongoing sexism within the same station, landing footage of a sergeant boasting crudely about his sexual hassles and making vile reflections about women.
Patel’s Allegations
Patel’s record, meanwhile, is marred by further allegations. He is accused of fraud, having allegedly taken a driving licence and cash from a member of the public in August 2021, and of possessing a Met-issued stab vest without lawful reason in March 2022.
The IOPC confirmed: “We did criminally investigate the officer over an allegation of theft but, in January 2024, decided not to refer the case to the Crown Prosecution Service.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson also confirmed that Patel resigned in July last year, but stressed that “he will still face a full misconduct hearing in January.”
The Met’s reputation remains under intense pressure. Following Times of reproach, from racism and corruption claims to sexual misconduct within its ranks, the force continues to grapple with the consequences of lost public trust.
As the IOPC disquisition moves forward, questions loiter over whether deeply ingrained misogyny and abuse of power inside the Metropolitan Police can truly be canceled, or if Britain’s biggest police force remains a law unto itself.
