Super-strict cop tipped for top Met job blasted shabbily-dressed police officers

THE super-strict cop tipped to take over the Met once told officers to smarten up — instead of looking like “third-rate security guards”.

Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave circulated a damning note calling out his scruffy colleagues.

He blasted: “If you turn up to a burglary or an accident looking like the proverbial sack, what hope is there that you will apply any better attention to your job?”

He added: “Good sergeants are invaluable, bad sergeants are worse than useless.

“I have spoken to individual officers who, in my estimation, have presented themselves in a state of dishevelment and disarray.”

The note was circulated on the Met’s internal intranet last year.

A source said: “This is a flavour of what’s to come if he gets the job.”

Ephgrave is vying with former counter-terror chief Sir Mark Rowley to become the next Met Commissioner.

The candidates face interviews with Home Secretary Priti Patel and London mayor Sadiq Khan.