Female serving Met Police officer is sacked for ‘turning a blind eye’ to shoebox containing £10,000 in her wardrobe, stolen by her husband from a Line of Duty-style criminal gang

• PC Inga Gherghel was dismissed without notice on April 28, 2020
• Police searched the couple’s address and found the cash along with a stab vest 
• Her husband had allegedly been an accomplice to Kashif Mahmood, a Met officer who was part of a wider criminal network

A female Met Police officer has been fired for ignoring £10,000 hidden in a shoebox in a Line of Duty-style corruption plot which has seen six officers jailed.

PC Inga Gherghel was dismissed without notice on April 28, 2020, after police searched the couple’s address and found the cash along with a stab vest not belonging to her.

Police discovered the stab vest had been used by her husband Ioan Gherghel, a 36-year-old Romanian bodybuilder, who would allegedly use the stab vest to impersonate a police officer.

He was jailed for six years in early 2022 after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to acquire criminal property. 

A significant amount of cash found at the home of Ioan Gherghel, a friend of Mahmood, who was also jailed with the corrupt officer

The husband had allegedly been an accomplice to Kashif Mahmood, a Met officer who was part of a wider criminal network.

As part of the act, Mahmood would pretend to stop and search drug dealers to steal their money.

Mahmood booked out police cars from Stoke Newington Police station while he was calling in sick, then drive to pick up Ioan Gherghel who would wear the vest before driving around looking for potential shake-downs.

The couple were busted when they accidentally activated a body camera and recorded Ioan Gherghel – who is not a police officer – wearing the stab vest.

But the investigation panel had trouble convicting Inga Gherghel of knowingly hiding the criminal proceeds, instead finding it was inconceivable that she could not have been unaware of the contraband.

‘PC Gherghel willfully failed to enquire further in to the origin or purpose of the items and as to what either might be doing in her flat,’ said the police in a statement. 

Mahmood’s wife Shareen Kashif, 30, was sentenced after she admitted concealing criminal property for her husband in April 2020.

She was given a 20-month sentence, suspended for 21 months, and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work following a hearing at Southwark Crown Court.

The court heard her husband regularly jetted off to Dubai and lived a lavish lifestyle with designer watches while working with east London gangsters.

Shareen Kashif pictured outside Southwark Crown Court in 2021. She avoided an immediate custodial sentence

Corrupt cop Kashif Mahmood was jailed for eight years in May for his role in an organised crime group

Kashif, who was supported by family members in a packed public gallery in court, told police she only became aware of her husband’s illegal activities a few days before the raid on their house.

Kashif said she was ‘very angry’ when she became aware of her husband’s illegal activities, adding she had done a ‘silly and stupid thing’ in helping him conceal the money.

She initially was arrested when police discovered Encrochat messages between the London gang and a co-conspirator in Dubai – where Mahmood would holiday with the crime group.

Ioan Gherghel and Kashif Mohmood allegedly confiscated £850,000 from criminals in March 2021.

They handed the money to 34-year-old gangster twins, Shabaz and Shazad Khan and their older brother Mohsin Khan.

Investigations by the Met’s anti-corruption unit began after the French gendarmerie infiltrated the EncroChat encrypted phone network in April 2020, revealing Mahmood was using his police powers to work with the Khan gang.

Mahmood and the Khans were ‘long-standing associates’ and holidayed together in Dubai.

While Mahmood was jailed for eight years, ringleader Mohsin Khan, 35, was sentenced to 16 years jail and Shazad was locked up for 15 years while Shabaz received 14 years.

Source: Read Full Article