A police officer who was one of the first on the scene of the 2017 London Bridge terror attack has been sacked for gross misconduct after using “derogatory” language about Romas, Gypsies and Travellers.

DC Mark Luker of the British Transport Police (BTP) used offensive language in a WhatsApp group he was in with other police officers.

In a WhatsApp conversation on 31 December 2024 about someone winning a bottle of whisky with the security tag still attached, Luker wrote: “Was this a raffle on a certain kind of site? Lots of mobile type homes? Lots of ‘Dags’”. He then added: “You are the MSOC pikey liaison.”

The misconduct panel during a tribunal concluded that these were “deliberate messages that clearly link the Irish Traveller community to acts of theft”.

The word “dags” is believed to be a reference to a scene in the Guy Ritchie film Snatch in which Brad Pitt plays a Gypsy. During the scene, the character played by Stephen Graham struggles to understand Pitt’s accent when he says “dogs”. The panel found that the word was “derogatory” because it refers to an instance when a Gypsy character’s accent is “mocked”.

Luker was a member of a WhatsApp group called “Selbie Gumshoes” with other members of the Major Serious and Organised Crime (MSOC) team.

During another WhatsApp conversation on 17 March 2025, Luker wrote: “Off to find some scrap metal, lead roofing and cable”, in response to a video sent by another group member of “Paddy Day parade on Inishbofin” alongside the message “Just like a Disney World Parade. They know how to put on a show”.

The panel said that Luker’s message was “deliberate and discriminatory” because it linked the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community to theft.

He also used the word “pikey” again in messages that were sent on 27 March 2025.

During the tribunal, the panel heard that Luker accepted that “scrap metal, lead roofing and cable” was a joke to associate theft with the Irish Traveller community but said he did not intend for the word “pikey” in the messages to be offensive.

Luker was one of the first responders to the terror attack on London Bridge which took place on 3 June 2017. He said that one of his coping mechanisms for dealing with the day was the use of humour, the panel heard.

The panel concluded that DC Luker is not “inherently racist”.

“As an experienced BTP police officer used to dealing with a whole range of people, the panel found that, on the balance of probabilities, he probably would have known that this was an especially offensive use of language directed towards members of a minority community,” the panel wrote.