Mohammed Abid

Introduction

Mohammed Abid is a former police constable with Greater Manchester Police (GMP) who served in the force’s Bury division. In September 2026, a GMP disciplinary panel found that Abid had directed a racist remark towards a female colleague of African heritage, smiling and walking away after describing her hair as “looking like a mop”, and dismissed him without notice for gross misconduct. He was one of six serving officers dismissed following a two-week disciplinary hearing, with two former officers also found to have committed gross misconduct. Abid denied the comment and accused his accuser of fabricating the allegations, but the panel rejected his denials outright.

Background Information

Abid served as a PC in GMP’s Bury division, where the colleague at the centre of the case — referred to throughout the disciplinary hearing only as “PC Y” — was also stationed. A former criminology student at Manchester Metropolitan University, he came from a Rochdale family that drew public attention through his younger brother, Mohammed Fahir Amaaz. Amaaz was jailed for three-and-a-half years earlier in 2026 after being convicted of repeatedly punching PCs Lydia Ward and Ellie Cook in the notorious Manchester Airport incident of July 23, 2024, in which officers had been dispatched to arrest him for headbutting a man inside Terminal 2; footage of the fracas was seen by millions on social media. Abid, who at the time was still a PC although suspended from duties, provided character evidence for his brother during two trials, telling the jury that Fahir was “known for his respectful, gentle, and soft-spoken nature”. This family connection is background context only; the disciplinary findings concerned Abid’s own conduct towards a colleague.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated. The findings in this section come from a GMP disciplinary panel, which found the allegations proven and issued its sanction. These are regulatory findings, not criminal convictions.

A Greater Manchester Police disciplinary panel ruled that PC Mohammed Abid directed a racist remark towards a female colleague of African heritage, smiling and walking away after describing her hair as “looking like a mop”. Abid and five fellow officers stood accused of racially taunting the woman over the course of a year within GMP’s Bury division, and all six were dismissed without notice following the two-week disciplinary hearing that found them guilty of gross misconduct. Two additional former officers who had already left GMP before the hearing were also found guilty of gross misconduct.

The panel heard that PC Y, who was born in Africa but fluent in English, had been ruthlessly mocked and mimicked for her accent, and that she said the mimicking occurred every day. “They would copy whatever I said then they would laugh about it,” she told the hearing, adding of the effect on her: “It was quite upsetting. It made me uncomfortable, nervous, quite anxious as well.” Abid denied describing PC Y’s braided hair as resembling a mop and insisted his accuser was fabricating the allegations, counter-claiming that he, rather than the female officer, was the true victim of racism. “No, I wouldn’t do that,” he told the hearing, citing his upbringing: “I have got a wife, I have got sisters, I have got a mother. Since young I have been brought up to respect my elders, especially females.” The panel rejected his denials outright, ruling that PC Y had been telling the truth.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel’s chair, Assistant Chief Officer Jonathan Roy, concluded there was a “culture of mocking accents” within the police unit at Bury police station, noting that the culture of imitating PC Y’s accent was “so engrained” that “new members of the team were infected with it within weeks of joining the team”. He explained that the accusation against Abid rested solely on his accuser’s testimony, but that the panel determined it could “rely on the evidence” provided by PC Y, partly due to the findings concerning the other officers. Roy said: “In the circumstances, the panel found no reason not to disbelieve PC Y’s account of the conversations with PC Abid.” The panel therefore found as fact that Abid made the comment, and that it would have been potentially offensive to any person but, in relation to PC Y, concerned a protected characteristic relating to her race — as such, the panel considered it “a racist comment”. Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods said after the hearing: “No officer or member of staff should have to come to work and experience discriminatory behaviour from the people they serve alongside.” He acknowledged “the courage of the officer who came forward and reported these concerns”.

Current Status

Abid and fellow PCs Demi Green, Heena Rani, Lucy Granby, Matthew Barlow and Matthew Hill, along with former PC Jake Holt and a former officer granted anonymity, were all found to have committed gross misconduct; the six serving officers were dismissed without notice and all eight were placed on the College of Policing’s barred list, permanently preventing them from holding any position within policing again. A ninth officer, Sergeant Adrian Bick, was found guilty of simple misconduct rather than gross misconduct, kept his position, and received a final written warning for comparing a photograph of a suspect to PC Y. Separately, in May 2026 Abid’s brother Amaaz and another brother, Muhammad Amaad, were formally acquitted of attacking PC Zachary Marsden after two juries could not reach verdicts and prosecutors decided not to seek a third trial.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The dismissal ended Abid’s policing career: after the hearing, his career and reputation lay in tatters, and his placement on the College of Policing’s barred list permanently bars him from any position within policing. The AOL report described the outcome as bringing further disgrace upon his Rochdale family, whose name had already been publicised through his brother’s trial and imprisonment. The gross-misconduct finding is a regulatory sanction rather than a criminal conviction, but it is final so far as his police employment is concerned, and the panel’s conclusions about his honesty — its outright rejection of his denials and his counter-claim of racism — form part of the formal record of the case.