Wednesday 10 February 2010

Cop this

He was

a self-serving crook; clever conman, bully, playboy, womanising misogynist, serial litigant and liar

Oh, and also a Commander in the Metropolitan Police.

It’s fascinating to learn that once you reacher the rank of Commander you get a chauffeur driven car. No wonder the Met’s management is so spectacularly indifferent to its duty of care to vulnerable road users.

Why should anyone in the police service enjoy a chauffeur driven car to get them to work? Senior managers in other public institutions like the National Health Service or in education don’t enjoy perks like this. If Met Commanders had to cycle to work it might change their lax perspective on motoring crime.

Southwark crown court also heard that Dizaei rarely paid for his meals and left his unmarked car on a double yellow line while at the restaurant.

(It’s the parking detail that clinches it for this blog.)

Surveillance also suggested that he took £800 from a man on bail, in apparent exchange for help with a drink-driving charge

Rather weirdly (was this to avoid prosecution for motoring offences?) he

sometimes drove a Liberian Embassy car with diplomatic plates

And now here's the cycling angle:

Dizaei faces further disciplinary charges involving his links to lawyers defending a hit-and-run driver in South Kensington.

He is accused of advising Georgian embassy official Natela Grinina on how to handle police enquiries and the prosecution. She was later sentenced to 10 years in her absence for causing the death of a cyclist.