Avon and Somerset Police fail to prove racism claims

Misconduct action has been dropped against a police recruit accused of making racist comments.

Colleagues accused PC Andra Serbanescu of making racist comments about an Asian man and two black men.

She joined Avon and Somerset Police in March and said her words had been "twisted" to sabotage her career.

Her lawyer said the claims were "wilful or reckless misrepresentation" and a misconduct panel decided the force had failed to prove the claims. 

The disciplinary panel at Kenneth Steele House in Bristol, heard that at about 04:00 BST on 30 July, PC Serbanescu and her tutor PC Oliver Howe were in a marked police car in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset.

They spoke to an Asian man who told them he was waiting for a mosque to open, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

The officers drove away, but PC Howe alleges PC Serbanescu said the man's actions by waiting to pray were "narrow minded" and a "waste of time".

PC Howe also claimed she said the man would be "the type who would have a bomb".

PC Serbanescu said her words had been twisted by PC Howe, who she accused of trying to sabotage her career as well as "bullying" and "humiliating" her.

Another officer, PC Joshua Osborne, claimed PC Serbanescu said she knew two black men would be arrested as soon as she saw them. 

Ramin Pakrooh, defending, said PC Howe had "paraphrased and exaggerated" PC Serbanescu's comments, and that PC Osborne's recollection was inaccurate. 

PC Serbanescu told the panel the claims had "hurt" and "I'm not a racist".

"I realised he [PC Howe] didn't want me to be a police officer when he started twisting my words," she said.

Representing Avon and Somerset Police, Mark Ley-Morgan rejected Serbanescu's claim about PC Howe twisting her words saying it was "an allegation of corruption and serious dishonesty" and that he had "nothing to gain" by lying to the panel.