Thames Valley Police has issued a formal apology for the way officers handled the eviction of a PTI student wing leader from a property in Slough. The force admitted that police made serious mistakes during the removal of Moaz Ishan, widely known as Maaz Malik, from a house on Canada Road.
In a written letter, the police accepted that officers failed to properly consider documents proving Malik was a legal tenant. The Insaaf Students Federation (ISF) leader had shown officers clear information about his tenancy status, yet the documents were not taken into account. Police later admitted they had been “misled and misguided” by the property owner.
The apology letter stated: “I acknowledge that this was a mistake and officers have failed to fully understand your circumstances sufficiently.” The force also accepted that the incident left Malik without access to his home and caused him significant distress. Officers had not listened carefully or acted on his concerns at the time.
A senior officer confirmed the force had fallen short of its expected standards of fairness, respect and empathy. Lessons from the case will now be shared with all officers to prevent similar mistakes in future. The police also apologised for the long delay in responding to the formal complaint.
The dispute between Malik and his landlord had been ongoing for months. The landlord claimed Malik had not paid rent for more than a year and had broken the contract. Malik admitted he withheld rent after the landlord started major internal renovation work. He said the building work stopped him from renting rooms to other tenants and recovering money, arguing that the landlord had first broken the agreement.
Malik had lived in the property for around five years before relations turned sour. The matter reached the local council before the landlord involved the police. Officers eventually carried out the eviction, and video footage of the incident later spread widely online, drawing public attention.
Thames Valley Police has now accepted full responsibility for the errors and promised better training for officers dealing with similar tenancy disputes in the future.
