Caroline Nku, a Black female police officer with the Metropolitan Police, has won a claim for indirect race discrimination after her promotion to Police Sergeant was rescinded following a WhatsApp hack. The incident occurred in September 2023, just weeks before she was due to start her new role at Islington Police Station.
WhatsApp hack leads to misconduct investigation
Fraudsters compromised Nku's WhatsApp account and sent messages to her colleagues requesting money, with one message stating: "Please I need a favor from you [praying hand emoji]." When one officer refused, the hacker replied, "You are too stingy." Despite Nku warning her contacts and obtaining a new phone number, the Met Police launched a gross misconduct investigation into her, suspecting her of fraud.
Consequently, the Human Resources department immediately withdrew her impending promotion. An internal email from an acting police sergeant justified the move, stating: "Officer's can't be promoted if they are under investigation."
Tribunal finds indirect race discrimination
The Watford Employment Tribunal ruled that this "blanket" policy amounted to indirect race discrimination. The judgment relied on findings from the Casey Review, which highlighted that black officers are 81% more likely to be placed into the misconduct system than their white counterparts. The tribunal found that by automatically pausing promotions without an "individualised and evidence-based assessment," the force transferred systemic racial disadvantage into career progression.
Procedural failings by the Met
The tribunal noted serious procedural and evidential failings. A Met inspector submitted an intelligence report based on "brief research" that incorrectly claimed WhatsApp's encryption prevented accounts from being accessed on different devices. This "flawed" assumption was accepted without scrutiny and repeated throughout the chain of command.
Another investigating officer quietly corrected the scammer's American spelling of "favor" to the British "favour" in an official summary without notifying superiors, and ignored witness statements from colleagues who believed Nku was a victim.
Detective Inspector Iqbal Meah attempted to intervene, warning superiors: "Non-compliance with the Promotion SOP adversely impacts Black, Asian and minority officers as they are more likely to [be] subject to Misconduct Investigations."
Intervention and clearance
The investigation was halted months later after Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy intervened. He acknowledged the "disproportionality within the police misconduct system" and concluded that "inadequate information... appears to have driven the sequence of events." Nku was officially cleared with "no case to answer" and subsequently posted to her role as Sergeant with back pay.
The tribunal dismissed Nku's separate claims of direct race and sex discrimination, finding the force's actions were driven by "erroneous assumptions, inadequate fact-finding, and the operation of a blanket or default approach," rather than conscious bias. The amount of compensation will be determined at a later date.
