Police officer living in Wigan convicted of corruption

A jury at Liverpool Crown Court found Akeel Kadir guilty following more than 18 hours of deliberations along with co-conspirator Junaid Patel.

Judge Neil Flewitt, KC, adjourned sentence to enable pre-sentence reports to be prepared and renewed their bail until April 19.

But he warned them, “You should not take either of those things as any indication of what the likely sentence will be: “All options including immediate imprisonment remain open to me and you should both prepare yourselves for that possibility.”

54-year-old Kadir was alleged to have received thousands of pounds for information from international businessman Soyab Dhalech, much of which he spent on online gambling.

But Dhalech, 53, of Princess Road, Lostock, Bolton, denied the conspiracy charge and was acquitted by the jury and discharged from the dock.

He had told the court that the payments had been for a local football team and a charity marathon sponsorship, a wedding gift and a £3,000 loan when Kadir was off work after his wife was diagnosed with cancer.

During the trial, which began in January, it was alleged by the prosecution that Kadir, of Kilburn Road, Orrell, Wigan, had been paid £8,000 to help companies run by Dhalech and Patel between April 13, 2015 and November 13, 2019.

Nicholas Johnson, KC, prosecuting, told the jury that the case arose from an investigation by the GMP Anti-Corruption Unit into PC Kadir.

He said he abused his position within the force to access secure systems and obtain confidential police information, which he then shared to the benefit of friends, who were not part of the force.

Patel, 36, of Edstone Close, Bolton, and Dhalech, were connected to a motor insurance claims company called Apex Claims (UK) Ltd based in Apex House in Bolton and had been directors of other companies operating out of Apex House.

Much of the information PC Kadir provided was not for a proper policing purpose but to help out the business interests of his friends, claimed Mr Johnson.

Kadir also denied three offences involving “knowingly or recklessly” obtaining or disclosing personal data on August 22, 2018, March 2, 2019 and 26 March, 2019 without consent of the data controller.

He was cleared of two of them but found guilty of the other one.

He joined GMP in April 2005 and was stationed in Bolton until 2019 when he moved to Wigan.