White police claim racial discrimination against Met

Two white policemen are suing Scotland Yard for racial discrimination after claiming black and Asian officers received preferential treatment. Inspector Bill Cole and Constable Ken Anderson say they were victimised by senior officers and investigated for wrongdoing when an Asian officer doing a similar job was not investigated.

They also alleged that black and Asian officers were receiving more lenient treatment from their superiors. The head of the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents most of the 29,000 officers working in London, said there were other racial discrimination claims in the pipeline involving white policeman.

In the latest case, the two officers claim they were unfairly sacked from a posting to Bramshill police training college in 1999 after being investigated for allegedly fiddling their mileage expenses. The pair say an Asian officer in the same unit was not investigated, although he was doing similar work and claimed a similar mileage allowance.

PC Anderson claims he was eventually forced to take sick leave because of stress and was put on half-pay after six months, although black officers in similar situations remained on full pay. The case is to come before a employment tribunal on Monday, but Scotland Yard and the two officers, represented by the Police Federation, are trying to negotiate a compromise.