Crossword Genius

Crooked man stashing police record with diamonds (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

malformed

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'crooked' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?

'man stashing police record with diamonds' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'man' could be 'mal' and 'mal' is located in the answer.
'record' could be 'form' (I've seen this before) and 'form' is present in the answer.
'diamonds' could be 'd' (abbreviation in card games) and 'd' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for malformed that I've seen before include "faulty!" , "disfigured" , "Misshapen" , "Badly-shaped" , "in bad shape" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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