Over £450,000 for discriminated police officer

A police officer who was victimised by Cleveland Police has been awarded over £450,000 at Teesside Magistrates Court.

Nadeem Saddique worked for Cleveland Police and guarded Tony Blair and members of the Royal Family. At a hearing in November last year he was successful in claiming direct discrimination and victimisation against the force. The Middlesbrough born officer was not successful in a claim of harassment under the Equality Act.

Today Mr Saddique was awarded £457,664.

Mr Saddique joined the police in 1991 and served in the VIP protection unit looking after politicians and Royalty. The ruling in 2015 found that he was directly discriminated against and victimised - but didn't uphold claims he'd been harassed over his race.

In 2011 Mr Saddique was pressurised to join the motorcycle unit but as a result it meant he would lose his authorised firearms officer status. The following January he tried to regain his VIP protection qualification but was prevented from doing so. He put forward a series of grievances to employers and was dissatisfied with their handling of the complaints.

At the time of the ruling the Chief Constable at the time Jacqui Cheer said:

A Cleveland Police spokesperson they have delivered equality, diversity and human rights training sessions in the wake of the case.

“We are aware of the outcome of the remedy hearing and following the judgement apologised to Mr Saddique for the treatmen the received as an employee of Cleveland Police, as outlined in the Employment Tribunal.

“We have reviewed many of our policies as a result of this case and as part of our Everyone Matters project have delivered training sessions on equality, diversity and human rights and cultural awareness to the wider organisation.

“We are saddened that Mr Saddique is unable to progress his career as a police officer and wish him well for the future.

“The IPCC investigation into the case is continuing therefore it would be inappropriate to comment on this aspect of the case at this stage.”

Today in a statement PC Nadeem Saddique said the whole process had taken a serious toll on his family:

Mr Saddique’s employment lawyer, Clare Armstrong, from Slater and Gordon, said: