A policeman used a grieving relative’s details to buy porn as he waited for an undertaker to remove the body of a child who had died in the house.
PC Avi Maharaj, 44 made two purchases whilst waiting for the undertaker after the child’s relative had left the house in grief.
After the body was removed in February last year, he made another two purchases and stayed on.
The fraud was raised when the homeowner saw the bill and realised the porn channel access had been bought on the day of the child’s death.
Pc Maharaj denied all the allegations whilst the Independent Office for Police Conduct investigated, only changing his plea to guilty when he appeared in court charged with fraud.
He will be sentenced at a later date.
PC Maharaj accessed the channels after inputting a generic PIN to the cable set-up which the homeowner had not changed.
This gave him access to be able to buy the porn on the homeowners account.
An IOPC spokesman said: “There were four purchases made. They were access to porn channels.
“Two of the purchases were made whilst waiting for the undertaker to arrive and two after the undertaker would have left.
“He entered a generic PIN. He guessed the PIN and it gave him access to the account and he was able to access the channels.
“We can’t definitely say whether he watched it or not as no one else was there at the time but it would be odd to purchase them and not watch them.
“He put on his log he was at the property for an hour but there is a suggestion he was there for longer.
“We believe the homeowner had left because they were particularly upset and didn’t want to be in the property with the dead child.
“We can’t disclose any details of the sex or age of the child or circumstances of the death other than to say it was not suspicious.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, who referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service following a complaint said: “An officer serving with the Metropolitan Police Service has pleaded guilty to fraud following an investigation by the IOPC.
“PC Avi Maharaj, 44, appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on Tuesday 16 July 2019 charged with one count of fraud.
“The charge related to use of a member of the public’s cable television account to purchase pornography without permission.
“PC Maharaj, who is based in Earlsfield, was on duty following the death of a child at the property in south London in February 2018 when he purchased access to pornographic channels using the account of the property owner.
“The homeowner had left the property and the officer was waiting there for an undertaker to attend.
“The member of the public subsequently made a formal complaint and in September the matter was referred to the IOPC.
“We found evidence that indicated PC Maharaj was the only person present at the property when the purchases, which cost £25.96, were made.
“We also found evidence that suggested PC Maharaj may have falsified his attendance log to cover his actions.
“During our investigation PC Maharaj denied making the purchases.”
IOPC regional director Sal Naseem, said: “PC Maharaj’s behaviour was shocking and even more so given he was guarding the property in the absence of the homeowner.
“Not only were his actions deceitful but he caused considerable distress for the family involved who were dealing with the sudden death of a family member.
“Our investigation showed that PC Maharaj was the only person in the property who could have downloaded access to pornographic channels at the time the account was accessed.
“Today he has admitted his guilt under the weight of compelling evidence. I am sorry that the family involved had to deal with this while also coping with the tragic loss of their child.”
We completed our investigation in April 2019 after eight months and a file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service.
We also concluded that PC Maharaj had a case to answer for gross misconduct.
The Metropolitan Police Service agreed and will schedule a misconduct hearing.
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