Heathrow security officer Laura Hudson sacked after being caught shacked up with convicted drug crook Emmanuel de Silva
Hudson's uniform and a flight list were recovered when drug cops raided the home of convicted crook Emmanuel de Silva, 55 – but she's now suing the Home Office for sexual discrimination and unfair dismissal
A BORDER Force officer was found shacked up with the boss of a robbery gang when drug cops raided his home.
Laura Hudson’s uniform and a flight list were recovered in the swoop.
Photos of her and Emmanuel de Silva, 55, were dotted around his West London home. Miss Hudson, 40, was not arrested after the 2015 raid.
But she was sacked for failing to disclose the relationship and refusing to break it off.
She is now suing the Home Office for sexual discrimination and unfair dismissal, alleging she was treated differently to a male officer who had a close 30-year friendship with a drug importer.
Watford Employment Tribunal heard de Silva was convicted of intent to supply cocaine and ecstasy at Isleworth crown court in March 2016 following raids the previous summer. He had earlier led a gang dubbed London’s Reservoir Dogs and was jailed for 23 years in 2002.
De Silva was released in 2012 and a year later started seeing Miss Hudson who worked at Heathrow.
The hearing was told her bosses feared she could be vulnerable to pressure from de Silva and his associates.
Amjid Rana, Heathrow’s senior immigration officer, told the tribunal: “Laura has knowledge in this role of which flights we will be targeting and therefore which flights there will be no officers present in the customs’ channels. There is a clear conflict of interest.”
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Miss Hudson’s appeal against dismissal was rejected by senior Border Force official Jacqueline Sharland.
Miss Hudson said of the raid on her boyfriend’s home: “At no time was I arrested, cautioned, questioned or charged by police and the respondent confirmed the criminal investigators did not have any ongoing interest.”
The panel will make a ruling at a later date.
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