Fake police officer tries to get girl to drag over | UK | News | EUROtoday

A motorist who was left traumatised after being ordered to cease on a motorway by a person posing as a police officer, has been instructed there might be no felony investigation.

The girl, who’s utilizing the pseudonym Lisa, says the person waved what regarded like a police warrant card, drove near her at pace in an unmarked automobile and ordered her to drag over on the M1 in Leicestershire.

She didn’t cease, fearing a repeat of the Sarah Everard case. Police officer Wayne Couzens used his police warrant card to falsely arrest Everard in 2021. He then raped and murdered her.

Lisa reported the person and gave his automobile registration to the police. It has now emerged he was not an officer, however he had labored for the police. Lisa describes him as “a fake policeman who wanted to do me harm”.

She says in March 2023, she was driving alone on the M1 in Leicestershire. She admits she was dashing, doing about 80mph.

A lone male driver in an unmarked automobile crossed in entrance of her and went additional forward within the outdoors lane. As she got here up behind him, additionally within the outdoors lane, he began waving a small black pockets out of the motive force’s window, with an EIIR Royal-style image.

She thought it was a police warrant card and that she ought to pull over however felt uneasy. Lisa determined as an alternative to maneuver into the center lane and keep there. The driver then slowed down within the outdoors lane in order that he was driving parallel along with her.

Lisa instructed BBC News: “He leaned over holding the steering wheel with one hand. He was driving alongside me on a regular basis, shouting to drag over. He was actually offended. I felt actually careworn.

“He’s taking a look at me, not the highway forward and the window wasn’t open on my facet, but it surely was on his passenger facet and he’s waving the badge that I can clearly see is a black pockets with a police crest badge caught on the skin.

“I immediately thought of Wayne Couzens and David Carrick. I was genuinely frightened. I was shaking. I was gripping the steering wheel.”

When she did not stop, the male driver suddenly slowed down and turned off the motorway. Lisa reported the man when she stopped, but by then she was in the Derbyshire force area.

She was told that he was a Northamptonshire police officer and it was initially treated as a complaint against a police officer rather than a crime and dealt with by Northamptonshire.

Over the following months, an investigation established that the man was not an officer but had worked in a civilian role with the force, working for a contractor, and had left the role months before the incident.

The complaint was passed to the Leicestershire force because Lisa was driving in its patch and it needed to be dealt with as a crime report. By this stage, all CCTV footage from the time had gone, and it took until August for Leicestershire to log it as an alleged crime of impersonating a police officer.

Due to the delays, this was almost at the end of the six-month limit for prosecuting such an offence. Leicestershire says it ran out of time and did not speak to the man. It has apologised to Lisa.

In a statement, it told BBC News: “Leicestershire police takes any report of impersonation of a police officer extremely seriously. However, on this occasion our response did fall below the expected standard.”

The Professional Standards Department of Northamptonshire Police also apologised to Lisa in February this year. It says: “Ultimately you have been given a poor service throughout the life of this investigation.

“You had been left feeling distressed following a male’s actions and this could have been investigated as a criminal offense from the outset.

“Unfortunately, early misinformation that this male was a police officer with Northamptonshire Police led to this turning into a grievance investigation versus a felony investigation.”

The drive promised to talk to the person and, in a pre-arranged cellphone name, the person denied the allegations. Officers didn’t go to his residence. This was twelve months after Lisa had reported him.

Northamptonshire Police has additionally revealed there was no report of the person returning his ID card when he stopped working for the contractor. It says that whereas the cardboard would have had a Northamptonshire Police crest, it could have been stamped with the phrases “not a warrant card” and wouldn’t have been in a small black pockets. It added that practices for returning playing cards have now been tightened up.

Lisa is incredulous on the police response and a 12 months on nonetheless will get upset about what occurred: “I feel really let down. I still feel sick, panicky and scared. I would say he was a fake policeman who wanted to do me harm.”

She has shared her story with household and associates: “Many women have said that because he appeared to be a police officer, they would have stopped.” She dreads to assume what might have occurred if she had finished.