A corrupt Metropolitan Police officer known as “the Sheriff of Soho” has been jailed for seven-and-a-half-years after being found guilty of taking bribes.
Former sergeant Frank Partridge formed inappropriate relationships with nightclub owners and security bosses while tasked with policing the night life of London’s West End between 2013 and 2015.
The 50-year-old was treated to free hospitality – including a party hosted by Sir Elton John – hotel stays, lavish dinners and tickets for his mother-in-law to see heavy metal band Metallica in Milan for her 60th birthday, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Partridge, who worked in the Westminster licensing unit, also accepted gifts including a £7,000 family holiday to Morocco, a made-to-measure suit and monogrammed shirts, and even the services of a sex worker.
In return, he would pull his punches over alleged breaches of licensing rules, including criminal allegations of sexual assault, or help favoured security firms land lucrative contracts, a jury was told.
Partridge, who previously worked in the force’s clubs and vice unit, pleaded guilty to three counts of bribery and was found guilty of four further counts last week.
He got to know the West End after joining the Met in 1992, living in a section house behind Marylebone police station, and first met co-defendant Ryan Bishti, 43, the owner of Cirque le Soir nightclub, while socialising in Soho’s bars and clubs.
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‘Sheriff of Soho’: Sacked Met officer Frank Partridge found guilty of taking bribes
The court heard Bishti laid on hospitality for Partridge at his club, which is popular with celebrities, where he was rumoured to have his own table.
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He also paid for a hotel stay, and tickets for events, including a Metallica concert and a £200 VIP Wireless Festival package, the trial heard.
Footage found on Bishti’s mobile phone shows Partridge with a dancer dressed as a cat, who playfully whips the officer, who was later pictured wearing cat ears and a leash.
Following a night out at wine bars and a casino, Bishti was captured “in his shorts, vest and socks” in CCTV footage at his home in Battersea, southwest London, where Partridge was staying before two sex workers were let into the building, jurors were told.
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Partridge, who also ran a florist with his wife Maura Contardi, an Italian national, was arrested at Scotland Yard later that morning on 24 June 2015 after spending the night at Bishti’s apartment.
It came after a surveillance operation, including bugs and an undercover officer posing as someone wanting to buy a club for a German investor.
Partridge was watched as he spent an hour being fitted for a suit and shirts at a tailor in Clerkenwell, north London, before drinking with Terry Neil, 56, in a nearby strip bar.
Neil was a director of TSS, which provided security to venues in the West End and treated Partridge to meals at high-end restaurants including Nobu, and cocktails at Archers Bar.
Partridge was a guest of the firm at a £3,000-a-ticket end-of-summer party held by Sir Elton at the singer’s Berkshire home in September 2014 to raise money for his Aids Foundation charity.
Prosecutor Philip Evans KC said Neil wanted to keep Partridge “sweet” and the officer helped his firm get a contract with Mayfair restaurant Sketch by putting pressure on the management.
Partridge, who now lives in Spain with his wife, told jurors he “couldn’t believe what was happening” when he was arrested and denied his job was impacted by taking bribes.
He was dismissed from the Met in 2016.
“I had made myself confident I could accept those gifts because there was nothing in it at all,” he said.
‘How we run licensing units in the Met if now very different’
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Commander James Harman, from the Met Police said: “Partridge’s job was to consult with the local authority about licensing applications and supervise licensed premises to make sure they were complying with their conditions.
“But he developed unprofessional and inappropriately close relationships with people who owned, ran or were linked to those premises as well as with firms providing security to the venues.
“These matters happened almost a decade ago and how we run licensing units in the Met is now very different. Once we identified Partridge’s activities, we acted quickly to introduce measures to ensure no one officer can abuse their position of power in the way he did.
“This case is a clear example of the robust approach we take to corruption. Where a crime has been committed we will investigate and bring it before the courts, dealing not just with our own, but also with those who seek to influence and corrupt our officers and staff. “
Bishti, of Exhibition Road, South Kensington; Neil, of Kimbers Drive, Slough, Berkshire; Anna Ginandes, 46, of Fellows Road, Camden, north London; and a defendant who cannot be named for legal reasons, denied but were each found guilty of one count of bribery and will be sentenced on September 21.
