Ex-Met Police PC admits using dead people’s bank cards for shopping

Muhammed Mustafa Darr, 37, took credit and debit card details of the deceased when police were called out to deaths
Muhammed Mustafa Darr has admitted abusing his position to obtain dead people’s bank card details (James Manning/PA)
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A former Metropolitan Police officer has admitted using the stolen bank cards of dead people to go shopping.

Muhammed Mustafa Darr, 37, acquired the credit and debit card details of deceased people when police had been called out to a sudden death.

He used stolen money to “acquire goods or money transfers for himself or others” and to “sell on goods obtained fraudulently”, between December 2019 and August 2019.

Appearing in the dock at Southwark crown court, Darr pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in public office.

He also admitted abusing his position as a PC between June 2019 and September 2020 to access police computer databases to search for “information on yourself and others…without a legitimate policing purpose”.

Darr, who is no longer a serving police officer, denies misconduct over an allegation he stole a laptop and a bag from a Mercedes that had been stopped by police over suspected drink driving in June 2020.

He also denies perverting the course of justice between March and June 2020 by allegedly interfering in a live police investigation.

According to the charge, Darr is accused of “using his access as a police constable to look up the progress of a police investigation which had a link to Asif Mushtaq, and then spoke to Ali Ikram and Asif Mushtaq, advising Asif Mushtaq to conceal or destroy evidence linking him to the investigation”.

Darr, who lives in Walthamstow, was set free on bail until a five-day trial on the charges he denies, set to start on July 29, 2024.

The former officer, who was part of the Met’s North Area Basic Command Unit, pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in public office and denies misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice.

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