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Ghaffur to settle for £300,000 and accept gagging deal in 'embarrassing climbdown'
Justin Davenport and Amar Singh13.11.08
BRITAIN'S most senior Asian police officer is to settle his claim for race discrimination with Scotland Yard in what has been described as an "embarrassing climbdown", the Standard can reveal.
Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur will agree in principle to a £300,000 payout and full pension - on the conditions that he "softens" his accusations against the Met's top brass and signs a gagging clause.
He had originally been seeking more than £1million.
It was also claimed by sources close to the case that Mr Ghaffur will dissociate himself from the National Black Police Association - a group increasingly being seen as a problem within the force.
Mr Ghaffur has been told that his reputation as a respected senior officer will remain intact and he will also be entitled to a lump sum pension payout of £522,000 and an index-linked pension of £85,000 a year.
The agreement opens the way for him to obtain a lucrative consultancy role, probably with Olympic security issues.
The Assistant Commissioner was effectively suspended in September after he went on live TV and accused his boss Sir Ian Blair of waging a campaign of racial discrimination against him. He accused the Met chief of sidelining him from his role in charge of Olympic security.
News of the deal comes after it was revealed that former Met commissioner Sir Ian will be paid £400,000 following his resignation last month.
After weeks of legal wrangling, the deal has been agreed by the MPA and Mr Ghaffur's QC Robin Allen as the Met seeks to end the most damaging race row it has faced since the Stephen Lawrence inquiry ahead of a new commissioner taking over in the spring.
A source close to the negotiations told the Standard: "He has agreed that his claims stay private and he will tone down his allegations against the Yard."
Mr Ghaffur, the third most senior officer in the Met, announced this summer that he would be suing his employers in a multi-million-pound claim for race, age and religious discrimination.
The 53-year-old said he had compiled a damning dossier of racial discrimination going back to 2005. Mr Ghaffur announced that he was bringing his case against the Met in a televised press conference with his lawyer, Dr Shahrokh Mireskandari.
But his case was severely undermined in the weeks that followed after allegations of fraud were levelled against his solicitor. It emerged that Dr Mireskandari had a criminal conviction in Los Angeles for a telemarketing racket.
A source close to Mr Ghaffur said: "£300,000 is a hugely embarrassing climbdown and it seemed unthinkable a few weeks ago that he would accept that amount. I guess he ran out of options after his lawyer was exposed."
Soon after that, the National Black Police Association's president Commander Ali Dizaei, a close ally of Mr Ghaffur, was suspended pending three inquiries into alleged misconduct.
A source from the National Black Police Association said he had severed links with the organisation.
He said: "Ghaffur has basically fallen out with us."
Reader views (18)
I can't believe what I have just read... this leech has sucked a shed load of money from the country (and will continue to do so for the rest of his life) and has been allowed to get away with it?
With all going on in England lately: terrorism, murdered children, ridiculous payoffs, bigwigs escaping justice (ie Ian Blair)... these people should not be given any time or consideration; they should be booted out of their positions and given NOTHING!
They are a complete disgrace to their profession and do not deserve a penny of their ill-gotten gains.
Dig out their closets, find something REALLY nasty (as with Mireskandari), and publicly humiliate them! With something juicy to counteract their claim, they would disappear into the woodwork quicker than they crawled out of it!
Shame on the Met. for settling and wasting the taxpayer's money!
I'm glad I'm not in England anymore.
- Bintang, Jakarta Indonesia
The final race card has been played by this man!!at what cost to the "Britsh taxpayer" hope he retires back to whatever stone he crawled out of.disgace to the uniform.
- Terry Johnson Newark, newark
I hope that no-one treats this as a guilty plea by the Met Police. In my experience, they will often settle a claim out of court rather than fight, in order to save money. While a serving Officer, I was involved in the arrest of a woman for credit card fraud. The card had been stolen recently, by a women fitting the description of our suspect, from the victims home, (The suspect was with a friend of the victim) the person we had arrested was passed to the Met with the relevant arrest paperwork. A normal and regular procedure at the time, the offence being dealt with by the force that had recorded it. The Met, for reasons known only to themselves, chose to release the woman without charge. Her husband, a career criminal suggested they make a complaint of unlawful arrest. The Metropolitan Police rolled over and paid out £5000.00 without quibling. Unfortunately, some people make a career, and a good living from making frivolous complaints. The sooner Mr Ghaffur goes, the better for the Police Service and those Officers who do their job without making a complaint at what they consider to be a slight against them.
- Paul Bradford, Monflanquin, France
He jumped on the same gravy train as many other have done in the past and continue to do so.Too many people play the race card and get away with it. Where the accountability to the tax payer.
When is someone going to stand up against this milking of public money
Will he give any of this easy money to charity
- Hunsa, Ilford, Uk
£300,000 too much. Fight him out of principle.
- Frank, Home Counties, England
Seems like this was all about internal politics and money. Now that both players are out, hopefully the Met can move on. Having said that, if the Met were confident that Ghaffur didn't have a case, they should have seen the action through to the end and repaired their reputation a tad. And if Ghaffur was really doing this on a matter of principle, he wouldn't have settled. 300k and a hefty pension probably overcame that principle obstacle...
- G, London
If you do not have the skills etc. you do not get promoted. Why then say that they discriminated against you? This will in future lead to many claims and it will also work its way into all industries.
- Ignoramus, Surrey
It is simple get yourself promoted to a job you cannot do because of affrimative action. Then when it goes wrong you say you have been discriminated against. Iam wondering if anyone from an ethnic minority is capable of doing a job without a chip or a whole bag of spuds on their shoulders.
- Mary, Hornchurch, Essex
I agree with Ed that the Black Police Association has really no right or cause to exist in this county it's only because of the silly liberals, who seem to permeate in our society, who are so concerned about political correctness that they bend over backwards to support causes like the BPA and their ilk. If only the truth were really known that they themselves are responsible for inciting racialism where there isn't any apart from their own plans for promoting a police apartheid.
- Edwin Sheppard, Pinner UK
What an absolute bloody shambles. Either he was the victim of discrimination or he’s a liar. Now we’ll never know. When he eventually writes his book it will be his version of events so the public will only get a bias version of what happened.
I don’t know which disgusts me more the met paying him off or him taking the money. The only thing I think we can count on is that there will be a lot more law suits against the met.
- Garry, london
I can't see how this is an embarrassing climbdown. The man should've been sacked, and his pension lost. This country is so far down the gutter it's beyond saving. I only hope I haven't left it too late to get out.
- Scott, London
Tariq must be laughing all the way to the Islamic Bank. I'd subject myself to a similarly embarrasing climbdown anyday. It was always about the money, go large first and generally any settlement offered will do fine. As for disassociating himself from the BPA - he is a prime mover in it. One his first visits inside the Met on his appointment from Greater Manchester was to the good Doctor Dizaei in his office at Kensington police station, following the path worn into the floor tiles by many other BPA members. Who was the surprise character reference at Dizaei's Old Bailey trial? Yup - Tariq, and the copper's copper Sir John Stevens was a very angry man that day. It is a disgrace that the Met have seen fit to settle. If they had really wanted to draw a line under the activities of Tariq, Ali and the rest of the troublemakers then they should have dragged it all out into an open court and made Tariq and all his witnesses and referees say it all on oath . The same for Tariq, if he really wanted justice why did he settle? It's all about the money. What's next for this sad loss to the British police service? Maybe he can join Brian Paddick on 'I'm A Celebrity' and convince us he too is "...something more than a serious police officer".
- Ranter, Maidstone, UK
Assistant Commissioner: How could Mr Gaffur suffer racism yet climb to the 2nd highest position in the Met; The only position above him was Commissioner? Easy money nowadays in this ultra left regime, sue your workers or anyone else for racism, as its all a white conspiracy to hold people of colour back. What a load of horse crap!
- Brandon Thomas, London UK
"Mr Ghaffur has been told that his reputation as a respected senior officer will remain intact" Is this guy having a laugh or what? The money grabbing leach should be hounded out of the UK never mind the Police. How did this guy get so high up the Police ladder in the first place. Makes you wonder how many more Ghaffurs there are in the Met waiting their chance for £300,000 PAYOUT FUNDED BY THE TAXPAYER OF COURSE. Also, surely this man should not be anywhere near the security of the Olympics given his judgement, if he can't get a law abiding lawyer how can he be trusted when it comes to such an important security job? As for the Nat. Black Police Assoc. This is wrong there should not be such a thing, the Police are there for ALL citizens and to have an org. like this beggars belief, what if we had a White Police Org.?
- Ed, Hants
Best all round. Ghaffur was on a hiding to nothing and had no case. Thats 2 settlements so far, Blair and Ghaffur. Anymore in the pipeline. Good, now that the dirty linen is out of the way, the new team at the Met can get on with reducing crime and not putting money into lawyers pockets.
- Dhanraj, Basildon Essex
Just who is this source who says it is "a hugely embarrassing climbdown"? I doubt it is someone "close to Mr Ghaffur" - more likely someone very close indeed to Sir Ian Blair. £300k plus a £522k lump sum and an £85k pension - and the prospect of a new job - it all looks like a pretty good deal to me.
- Austen, London
£300,000 of tax payers money gone with the wind. Its time we got together and refused to pay our Council tax for this filth. Whilst we have pensioners struggling to heat one room and family's cutting out meals to survive the greedy just get fatter and fatter.
- Roger, Staines
Daylight robbery. These two examples of ethnic diversity in the Met - Ali Dizaei & Ghaffur - have cost the taxpayer millions between them. All in the pursuit of some idiotic never-never land of political correctness. A country fit for heroes populated by greedy self-serving foreigners promoted simply because of the colour of their skin. Outrageous. I am glad this has come back to bite the Met on the bum, I'm only sorry it's our money feathering his nest.
- Squiz, Islington
