Dizaei put on fast-track

Controversial police chief Ali Dizaei is to be put on the fast-track for promotion - but is also facing a fresh disciplinary hearing, it emerged today.

The Iranian-born superintendent is to be sent on a course which prepares high-flyers for some of Scotland Yard's most senior jobs.

The move follows the collapse of the court case in which he was charged with fiddling expenses and comes after the Met signed a deal with him ending its £7 million inquiry into his conduct.

The deal was hammered out in talks at Acas, the conciliation service.

But today it was revealed that the independent Police Complaints

Authority has expressed concern at the way the deal was made. It has asked Scotland Yard to respond to its concerns - or face orders to hold a new disciplinary hearing for Mr Dizaei.

Authority chairman Sir Alistair Graham has expressed concern that a " special deal" may have been done, and asked for a full explanation. "What is at stake is the integrity of the disciplinary process," he said.

"Every police officer should face a consistency of treatment as far as the disciplinary process is concerned. We can't have one officer getting special treatment because he is a senior black officer and because there are concerns about race in the police service."

The PCA's concern over centres on an allegedly threatening phone call he made to one of his former mistresses.

The married father-of-three left a message on 26-year-old Mandy Darougheh's answering machine after she left him telling her: "I will take such revenge from you that, like a dog, you will be sorry, that you will never treat me like this again. "From now on you are dead. I will start with your mum first. I am so emotionally disturbed now, that anything is possible from me."

Mr Dizaei, 41, claims the message was taken out of context at a time when he was under severe pressure because of the inquiry hanging over him.

The PCA, which is to be replaced next year with the new Independent Police Complaints Commission, has powers to order Met chiefs to hold new hearings if it finds they have broken procedures in their deal with Mr Dizaei.

Any such move would be a massive embarrassment for senior officers, who had thought they had put the case behind them.

After Mr Dizaei was cleared at the Old Bailey of charges of dishonesty Scotland Yard chiefs faced calls for a complete boycott of applications to join the force by members of the black and Asian community.

There were accusations that Mr Dizaei was the victim of a "witch-hunt" because of his involvement in the Black Police Association, to which he had been legal adviser.

Scotland Yard hammered out a deal with Mr Dizaei in which he agreed to drop any civil claim for racial discrimination in return for reinstatement to his £52,000-a-year position, consideration for future promotion, and an £80,000 compensation payment for his long-running ordeal. Mr Dizaei returned to work earlier this month.