‘Fake police officer’ tried to stop woman on M1
Two police forces have now apologised for not investigating it properly.
A driver told how a man flashed what looked like a warrant card at her and ordered her to pull over on the motorway – but he wasn’t a police officer.
Fearing he wanted to ‘do her harm’, she refused to stop, noting the number plates of the unmarked car.
She contacted police to ask them about the incident in March 2023, and it was discovered that the man had previously worked for police in a civilian role, but was not an officer.
But two forces have now apologised to her for a substandard and late response.
The woman, who used ‘Lisa’ as a pseudonym, told the BBC that she dreads what might have happened if she had stopped and still finds the incident traumatic.
Disgraced ex-police man Wayne Couzens used his warrant card to stop Sarah Everard in March 2021, before raping and murdering her, and reading about this case was part of why she refused to stop.
Lisa admits she was speeding at around 80mph while driving northbound on her own on the M1 in Leicestershire.
A lone male driver then crossed ahead of her and started waving a black wallet with a card out of the window, marked ‘with an EIIR Royal-style symbol’, it was reported.
Her first thought was to stop but something made her feel uneasy so she crossed to the middle lane and carried on driving.
She told how the man pulled alongside her with his window down and started angrily shouting at her to stop, while ‘waving the badge that I can clearly see is a black wallet with a police crest badge stuck on the outside.’
When she still did not stop, he eventually turned off the motorway.
But Lisa is concerned that the incident was not investigated properly despite her reporting it immediately.
At first it was not picked up that the man was not really an officer, which led to the report being treated as a complaint rather than a crime.
The BBC reported that Lisa received a letter from the Professional Standards Department of Northamptonshire Police to apologise in February this year.
It read: ‘You were left feeling distressed following a male’s actions and this should have been investigated as a crime from the outset.’
Twelve months after the incident, the force finally contacted the man by phone and he denied the allegations. They did not visit his home.
Northamptonshire Police confirmed that the man had worked for them as a detention officer contractor between September 2021 and December 2022.
They said he would not have been issued with a card stamped with an EIIR Crest and it would not have been given to him in a black wallet.
But they acknowledged he would have been given a card showing the Northamptonshire Police crest, though it would state clearing it was ‘Not a warrant card’.
Such ID cards should be returned as soon as employment ends, but the force said:’Unfortunately there is no clear record of the card being returned in this case.
‘This has since been addressed and processes tightened to ensure all property is recovered and clearly recorded.
‘However, the ID card itself was cancelled when his employment ended, meaning he had no access to police property, buildings or systems after that date.’
They said they had not received any further complaints regarding the man.
After the potential crime was realised, the issue was passed onto Leicestershire Police as it happened in their area.
But by this time, there was no CCTV available and the incident was not logged until almost the end of the six-month limit for ‘impersonating a police officer’ to be prosecuted as a crime, and the man was not spoken to in time,
In a statement, the force told the BBC: ‘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.’
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