Former Met Police officer charged with bribery offence after corruption investigation

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A former Metropolitan Police officer has been charged with a bribery offence as part of a corruption investigation.

Ex-sergeant Frank Partridge, 48, is accused of conspiracy to commit bribery.

Seven other people have been charged with the same offence as part of an investigation by Scotland Yard’s Anti-Corruption Command.

A spokesperson said: “The charges follow a long-running investigation by officers from the Anti-Corruption Command examining allegations of corruption by police licensing officers in Westminster, and inappropriate relationships between police officers and people running local businesses.”

Mr Partridge, of Wing in Buckinghamshire, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court alongside the other defendants on 21 December.

Ryan Bishti, 41, of South Kensington, Pamela Bishti, 66, of Croydon, Hassan Serdoud, 54, of Camden, Anna Ginandes, 44, of Camden, Terry Neil, 55, of Slough, Soraya Henderson, 55, of High Wycombe and Eamonn Mulholland, 54, of Islington have also been charged with conspiracy to commit bribery. Mr Serdoud has also been charged with bribery.

It comes amid several probes concerning alleged corruption in the Metropolitan Police, and separate criminal cases where officers have been charged with offences including rape, voyeurism and child sex offences.

Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick launched an independent probe into the force’s “standards and culture” after Wayne Couzens was convicted of raping and murdering Sarah Everard while serving as a firearms officer guarding high-profile sites.

A separate public inquiry will look at how Couzens remained an officer while committing previous indecent exposure offences, and “wider issues across policing”.

In June, a long-running inquiry into the unsolved murder of private detective Daniel Morgan found the Metropolitan Police to be “institutionally corrupt”.

An independent panel said that although its investigation focused on historic failures stemming from the 1987 killing, the term institutional corruption was used “in the present tense”.

Scotland Yard rejected the label but said it would consider the panel’s findings and recommendations.