AN Asian policeman who alleged he was subjected to racial abuse by a fellow officer has lost a claim of racial discrimination, it was announced yesterday.

An employment tribunal ruled that PC Jeffrey Sidhu's four complaints against Northumbria Police were not well-founded.

The officer, from Chester-le-Street, County Durham, said he was subjected to the racial taunt by PC Lance Wilson at a sergeant's retirement party in 1996.

PC Sidhu also said the same officer belittled him and called him "thick" at a firearms training course three years later.

His case against Northumbria Police also included two claims of victimisation over two internal investigations.

In a reserved decision, the tribunal agreed unanimously to dismiss the officer's claims.

It said: "We cannot find that, as a fact, PC Sidhu has shown that PC Wilson used the words he is alleged to have used at the police club."

The panel rejected PC Sidhu's claims of racial discrimination during the fire-arms course, saying there was no evidence to support the allegation.

It also ruled that Northumbria Police was right to launch two internal investigations after complaints were made about PC Sidhu's conduct.

The tribunal heard the officer say he was subjected to racial abuse while at the Bruche national training centre in Warrington, Cheshire, in 1992, where a BBC documentary recently exposed racist attitudes among recruits.

The hearing in February also heard a colleague of the Asian officer say how a police inspector described ethnic minorities as "fuzzy wuzzies" and remarked about a "darkie" at a training session at Gateshead police station on racial awareness.

After PC Sidhu, an officer based in Gateshead, launched his original claims of racial discrimination in 1999, he was the subject of two internal investigations over his conduct, the tribunal was told.

In 2001 he was cleared over an allegation that he had falsely entered information on his force's computer, but he was prosecuted for making a false compensation claim. The charge was later dismissed by a judge at Newcastle Crown Court.

The tribunal also heard that PC Sidhu had been guilty of racism in the past when he made a false claim about a shopworker in 1993.

In a statement, Michael Craik, Deputy Chief Constable of Northumbria Police, said: "Throughout the hearing PC Sidhu was not able to produce a single witness or any corroborative evidence to support any of the specific allegations made against either the force or named officers."