by A woman has spoken of her fear after a man pretending to be a police officer tried to pull her over while driving alone on the M1 motorway.
The man appeared to be displaying a warrant card, but she refused to withdraw in light of the murder of Sarah Everard by police officer Wayne Couzens.
It has since emerged that the man was not a police officer, but a civilian who had previously been contracted to work for the police.
It has not been forwarded.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, was driving north along the M1 in Leicestershire when the incident happened in March 2023.
she said the BBC as a lone man, driving an unmarked car, crossed in front of her car’s path and moved into the outside lane.
As she approached him in the lane outside, it is clear that he started waving a black wallet that looked like a warrant card, with a symbol that looked like the royal cipher, out of his window.
“Immediately, I thought he was a policeman. I’m speeding, I should pull over,” the woman told the BBC.
But feeling uneasy about the situation, she moved into the center lane instead. The male driver slowed down so he was driving next to her, and started shouting.
“He leaned over the steering wheel with one hand,” she told the BBC.
“He was driving alongside me the whole time, shouting to pull over. He was very angry. I felt very stressed.
“He’s looking at me, not the road in front of me and the window wasn’t open on my side, but he was on his passenger side and he’s waving the badge I can clearly see it’s a black wallet with a police badge stuck on the. out.
“I immediately thought of Wayne Couzens and David Carrick. I was very scared. I was shaking. I was holding the steering wheel.”
The woman said the driver then slowed, moved to the inside lane, and left the M1. She called the police as soon as she stopped.
She was told the man was a police officer from Northamptonshire, meaning Northamptonshire police initially dealt with the incident as a complaint against an officer.
But over a period of months, it was discovered that the man was not a police officer.
He reportedly worked with the force in a civilian role, for a contract firm, and had not worked for the force for months at the time of the incident.
Northamptonshire Police later said there was no record of the man returning his ID card when he stopped working with the force.
The ID card would have the words “not a warrant card” on it, but would have the force’s insignia on it, and would be in a small black wallet.
He told the BBC that he now has stricter practices when it comes to returning ID cards.
When it became clear that the man was not an officer, Northamptonshire Police referred the incident to Leicestershire Police, to treat it as a crime.
But by then, CCTV footage was no longer available, and the six-month time limit for prosecuting the offense had almost passed.
Leicestershire Police said he ran off at the time and have not spoken to the man.
The force apologized to the woman, and told the BBC: “Police in Leicestershire take any report of impersonation of a police officer extremely seriously. However, this time, our response fell short of the standard expected.”
Northamptonshire Police’s Professional Standards Department said in a letter in February this year: “Ultimately you have been given a poor service during the life of this investigation.
“You leave distress after the actions of a man and this should be investigated as a crime from the start.
“Unfortunately, incorrect information led to this man being a police officer with Northamptonshire Police as it was a complaint investigation rather than a criminal investigation.”
The force is said to have promised to speak to the man. The BBC reports that police made a pre-arranged phone call a month later – 12 months after he was reported – in which he denied the allegations. Police did not visit him, says the BBC.
The woman was left very worried about the incident and what would have happened if she had stopped, and disappointed at the police response.
“I feel let down,” she told the BBC. “I still feel sick, panicked and scared. I would say he was a fake policeman who wanted to harm me.
“Many women have said that because he looked like a police officer, they would have stopped.”
Former Met Couzens police officer used a Met police badge to pry Ms Everard, 33, from the streets of Clapham under arrest in March 2021 before raping, killing her, and burning her body.
Carrick police rapist – who was jailed for life last year for a “vile” catalog of abuse of 12 women over almost two decades – also used his status as a Met police officer to pressure and bully his victims into silence.
