Ali Dizaei is the most controversial figure with a Scotland Yard badge on his shoulder.
He has rarely been far from trouble throughout his long and contentious police career.
Various attempts to oust the 49-year-old from his job have proved unsuccessful, with the commander bouncing back each time.
His notoriety within the Metropolitan Police even led him to compare himself to London's most wanted criminals.
Most ambitious officers accrue an enviable file of challenging postings, tough training course credits and references from esteemed colleagues.
Dizaei's 26-year police career followed a similar trajectory as he was fast-tracked through the ranks in Thames Valley and then in the capital.
But it is most notable for a series of bruising encounters which left him joking he should put on his stab vest when walking inside New Scotland Yard.
His latest spell in court comes after a long battle involving a conviction, an acquittal and a retrial.
In February 2010 his career looked ruined after he was found guilty of assaulting and falsely arresting a man in a petty row over money.
A Southwark Crown Court jury ruled he was a corrupt officer who abused his position to bully a younger businessman.
He was sentenced to four years for assaulting and falsely arresting Iraqi Waad al-Baghdadi after he asked for £600 he was owed for a website showcasing Dizaei's controversial career.
Iranian-born Dizaei fought to appeal against his conviction, but his initial applications were refused.
However, the Court of Appeal last year quashed his conviction, and in May he was let out of jail.
He claimed his integrity "was completely intact" when he walked free from Leyhill open prison after 15 months after.
Further criticism was levelled against him when it emerged eight months after his conviction he paid just £750 towards the £64,500 it cost to put him on trial.
Dizaei earned several hundred thousand pounds while suspended on full pay awaiting the 2010 trial and an earlier corruption trial in 2003.
Born in Tehran in 1962, Dizaei was brought up in a family steeped in policing with a father who headed the traffic police and an assistant commissioner grandfather.
He claimed police work was his destiny and joined Thames Valley Police after attending boarding school and City University Law School.
As politicians and senior officers worked hard to increase the number of ethnic minority recruits, Dizaei was tipped to become the first Asian chief constable.
He continued to study, eventually earning a PhD and adding the title "Doctor" to his police business card.
In 1999, Dizaei joined the Metropolitan Police and was promoted to superintendent, based in Kensington, south-west London.
It was the year the force was accused of institutional racism after the inquiry into the handling of the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
Dizaei was by then vice-chairman of the National Black Police Officers Association (NBPA) and cutting a dash with his smart clothes and glitzy lifestyle.
But he was suspected of corruption and became the subject of what was to become the most expensive inquiry into a single officer.
Colleagues investigated him under the codename Helios over allegations he used drugs and prostitutes, and was spying for Iran.
In 2001 he was suspended until his acquittal at the Old Bailey in 2003. A second trial linked to claims he made false expenses claims was dropped at the last minute.
The Metropolitan Police said the inquiry cost the taxpayer £2.2 million. Dizaei argued that the figure was more like £7 million.
But since being cleared, reinstated and awarded £60,000 compensation, the senior officer refused to adopt a new low profile.
He spoke out over a botched counter-terrorism raid on the home of two brothers in Forest Gate, east London, and against the profiling of aircraft passengers.
In 2007, he angered bosses even more as he singled colleagues out for blame in his book Not One Of Us.
In following years Dizaei was at the centre of a fresh series of race claims during his time as president of the Metropolitan Black Police Association,
He acted as an adviser to Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur as his relations with former Commissioner Sir Ian Blair imploded amid acrimony.
Dizaei eventually filed his own race claim accusing the force of "systematic" discrimination.