A trainee police officer tried to fake having COVID-19 by drawing red lines on a lateral flow test, a tribunal has heard.

In a bid to stay home from work, Ahmed Anwari told his training officer last December that he could not come in because of a positive lateral flow test result.

But his ruse was uncovered when he was asked to send a photograph of the result as proof and it became “clear that the test had been manually altered with drawn red lines”, his disciplinary was told.

The Lancashire Constabulary officer was then invited to take a coronavirus test on a Microsoft Teams meeting in which he again falsely claimed the result was positive.

When confronted, Mr Anwari admitted faking the test and lying, saying he did it so he could stay at home under the then self-isolation rules.

He resigned from the force a day later.

Chairing Monday’s hearing, Chief Constable Chris Rowley found that Mr Anwari had breached standards of professional behaviour and in doing so had committed gross misconduct.

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He said: “I find that had Mr Anwari still been a member of Lancashire Constabulary he would have been dismissed.

“Police officers must keep in mind at all times that the public expect them to maintain high standards of professional behaviour.”

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