An officer who arranged to meet with two teenage girls he met while on duty has been jailed following a Met investigation.

PC Adnan Arib, part of Central East Command Unit, obtained the mobile phone numbers of both girls, 15 and 16 and was arrested.

The younger girl said she felt his ‘intentions were of a sexual nature’ when Arib, who had first been called to her home by her mother, met her in a park after school.

He was immediately suspended from duty and, following an independent investigation led by the IOPC, charged with two counts of misconduct in public office.

On Thursday, 3 March, he was sentenced to two years in prison, after previously being found guilty at Southwark Crown Court.

Detective Chief Superintendent Marcus Barnett, in charge of policing for Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said: “Officers like PC Arib are not welcome in our Met and the sentence handed to him today reflects the seriousness of his actions. Now that the criminal case has concluded we will move to misconduct proceedings as soon as possible.

Between March and July 2019, PC Arib made inappropriate contact with a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old girl who he had met through the course of his duties.

In each case he entered into text conversations with the girls and asked if they wanted to meet. He then proceeded to meet up with the 15-year-old who later reported the incident to a third party.

“We have already taken a number of significant steps to start real change across the organisation. These include two independent reviews, an examination of all current investigations of sexual and domestic abuse allegations against Met employees and an increase in the number of investigators in our professional standards directorate.