Met Police officer charged with neo-Nazi terror offence

A probationary Metropolitan Police officer has been charged with being a member of a banned neo-Nazi group.

21-year-old Benjamin Hannam, from North London, has been charged with five offences following an investigation by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.

It is alleged that between December 2016 and January 2018 Hannam belonged or professed to belong to a proscribed organisation, namely National Action, contrary to section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He is also accused of falsely representing in his application to join the Met Police that he had not been a member of an organisation similar to the BNP, namely National Action, intending to make a gain for himself.

In a statement, Scotland Yard has said that he has been suspended from duty, and stressed that ‘integrity is fundamental to policing and any officer suspected of displaying extremist behaviours or associations should rightly expect to be investigated’.