Sultan ALAM joined the Cleveland Police in 1984 at a time when there were very few Asian police officers.

On Joining the Road Traffic Policing department, he encountered racism of the worst kind, and was eventually forced to make a complaint to the Industrial Tribunal in 1993.

On 27th November 1994, just months before the case was due to be heard, he was arrested by the brother-in-law of one of the senior offices he had complained about and charged with handling stolen goods.

The Police Federation of England and Wales withdrew their support soon after he was arrested.

He was later convicted and served 9 months in prison. On his release, it took him a year to gather sufficient evidence to present to senior officers of Northumbria Police who launched a lengthy investigation named “Operation Granite”.

In 2004, after a three and a half year investigation, Detective Inspector Stephen BAKEWELL, ex-Detective Inspector, John Russell DAGLISH, D.C. Stuart HOPSON and D.C. Martin EGGERMONT were jointly charged with Conspiracy to Pervert the Course of Justice, BAKEWELL and HOPSON were additionally charged with Perjury and EGGERMONT was additionally charged with Inciting another to steal. Evidence gathered by “Operation Granite” clearly showed that these officers manufactured and manipulated evidence against ALAM and had destroyed evidence that would have proved him to be innocent.

The Police Federation of England and Wales refused to assist ALAM in overturning his conviction even though the evidence to do this was overwhelming. He then took them to the Employment Tribunal, representing himself throughout these proceedings and after 7 days of evidence, in September 2006 the Tribunal found the Police Federation guilty of Racial Discrimination and of Victimisation against ALAM. This was the first such finding against them.

On 19th November 2007, ALAM’S Appeal against conviction was heard by Lord Justice Moore-Bick sitting with two senior Judges at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The Crown Prosecution Service was in full support of the conviction being quashed. Quashing ALAM’S conviction the Court ruled that, “police officers have deliberately misled the court to suppress evidence” and described this as “a very grave case” The very next day, ALAM was reinstated by Cleveland Police and on 3rd March 2009 he was back on duty, in uniform, to start re-training. However, for reasons that need not be mentioned here, on 3rd April 2009, he retired from the police service on health grounds.

It took ALAM nearly 13 years to clear his name.