Former Leicestershire police officer banned from profession over crypto investment lies

A former Leicestershire Police officer as been barred from the profession after he was found to have been dishonest about his finances.

Osama Hussain joined Leicestershire Police in November 2022. During the recruitment process, he repeatedly lied about and failed to disclose that he had investments in crypto currency.

When he did mention the investments to the force’s vetting team during a later interview, he downplayed them saying he was “inexperienced” and was only investing £150 at a time. It later came to light he was spending thousands on Crypto and had thousands coming back in.

Leicestershire Police carries out a series of pre-employment checks on potential staff. These are intended to ensure the “highest levels of honesty and integrity” within the force and to prevent “corrupt, dishonest, unethical or unprofessional behaviour”, the force’s website states. Financial vetting forms part of the process, and through it the force assesses “the risk of vulnerability to financial inducement”.

Mr Hussain also lied about his relationship with a person – named just as Person A in the police hearing report – when asked to provide details about “associated persons” as part of the application. Mr Hussain said he had “previously been in contact” with Person A and said that person had “previously been in contact with the police and may have been subject to investigation and arrest”.

During the vetting interview, Mr Hussain reiterated he was not close to Person A and they “did not talk”, the hearing report stated. The force later found a series of financial transactions between Mr Hussain and Person A with around £4,000 both received from Person A and sent to him by Mr Hussain. The force said this proved Mr Hussain’s claims they were not close to be “false”.

Mr Hussain passed vetting and was advised he would need to alert the force to “any significant financial changes”. He had also been advised by the vetting team that if his Crypto investments – which he had falsely portrayed as low level – proved to be successful, he would need to tell the force.

Santander closed Mr Hussain’s bank account in January 2023. Mr Hussain again did not inform the force of this, the hearing report said.

He also failed again to flag his investments and the closure of his bank account some months later when filing a change of circumstances form after getting married. The form asked if there had been a change in his financial circumstances and he answered “no”, Leicestershire Police said.

Leicestershire Police said Mr Hussain was “dishonest and deliberately misleading in relation to investments made and failed to notify the force of any change in financial circumstances”. The hearing concluded he had breached the standards of professional behaviour namely honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct and that this amounted to gross misconduct.

Mr Hussain resigned from the force prior to the hearing and Leicestershire Police said he had not worked for them “for very long”. They added “internal checks” allowed the force “to identify areas of concern” related to his employment.

Had he not already resigned, Mr Hussain would have been dismissed from the force.

Chief constable Rob Nixon said: “Honesty and integrity is the foundation of good policing. The officer’s conduct was fundamentally dishonest, demonstrated a serious lack of integrity and was continued. I was therefore left with no choice but to conclude that former Pc Hussain would have been dismissed without notice had he still been serving.”

Mr Nixon has also indicated for Pc Hussain to be included on the Police Barred List.