Former Met PC admits using dead people’s bank cards

A former Metropolitan Police officer has admitted abusing his position to obtain dead people’s bank card details.

Muhammed Mustafa Darr, 37, pleaded guilty to two charges of misconduct in public office following a corruption investigation.

Mr Darr was a constable in north London at the time of the offences, between 2018-2020, but has now left the force.

However, at Southwark Crown Court, he denied two other charges and is set to face a trial next year.

Mr Darr, from Walthamstow, was charged following an investigation by the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards, which looks into complaints about officers’ conduct.

According to the charges he admitted, the bank details of deceased people were, “used to acquire or seek to acquire goods or money transfers for himself or others by fraud, and to sell on goods obtained fraudulently”.

He also used police computer systems to look up information about himself and others “without any legitimate policing purpose”.

Mr Darr will stand trial next year on a further charge of misconduct in public office, which he denies.

He is accused of stealing a laptop, as well as a bag and its contents, from a Mercedes belonging to a suspect who had been arrested by Mr Darr’s colleagues.

He also denied a charge of perverting the course of justice, which alleges he looked up the progress of a police investigation relating to a man he allegedly advised to conceal or destroy evidence connecting him to the inquiry.

Mr Darr has been bailed and is next due in court in July next year.