A Metropolitan Police officer has been sacked after pretending to be on duty in order to gain backstage access at All Points East festival.
PC Hasnain Awan was found to have committed gross misconduct at Police Misconduct Hearing held on May 5, according to the Hackney Gazette.
Awan allegedly worked a shift for the Met Police at the festival in London’s Victoria Park on On August 28, 2021, where he was given a wrist band to enable him to enter the site and perform his duties.
The following day he was off duty but was said to have attended the festival with a friend who was not a police officer.
Awan allegedly went to the festival accreditation desk and told staff that he needed a new wristband because his own had been seized as evidence after getting stained with blood.
It is then believed that he gave the new wristband to his friend and entered using the wristband he had used the day before, allowing both to enter the festival without paying the £95 entrance fee.
At 2pm the same day, he then allegedly tried to gain entry to a backstage area of the festival by showing his warrant card. When Inspector May-Robinson, who was responsible for policing at the festival, questioned him, Awan was believed to have said that festival staff knew he was not on shift.
He is then said to have resigned on February 19 this year after making a full admission.
“By his own admission he lied on more than one occasion which the panel has found was for his own self-interest, that he knew exactly what he was doing and given this repeated behaviour is indicative of an attitudinal issue,” according to a panel at a Police Misconduct Hearing earlier this month.
They added: “He did not make open admissions at an early stage but rather initially sought to create yet another account and justification for his actions which, by his admissions and apologies, demonstrates that this too was a fabrication.”
The panel said he would have been fired if he had not already resigned.
Meanwhile, Dermot Kennedy was recently announced as the final headliner at this year’s All Points East festival in London alongside the likes of The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jungle, Haim, Aphex Twin and Stormzy.
