Xperia 10 I4113 how to disable broken finger print sensor

I recently installed Sailfish 4 on the Xperia 10, and it runs just fine, but the phone’s finger print sensor is broken: it won’t register and it keep running hot by itself for no reason. I’m affraid the heating leads to a shorter battery life and system instability.
That was already the case under Android before I installed SFOS. There appears to be the tiniest dent in the sensor’s surface, which I thought might be the cause of the problem.
In Android I already deleted all the finger prints, hoping that would disable the sensor altogether, but apparently it keeps doing something, even under Sailfish.
Would anyone know if there’s a way to disable it completely, so the system stops running any power through it?

I’would disassemble and unplug it.
Not sure there is a software way to completely turn the power off on it.

Could be a good solution, if some OS process will not keep querying the sensor for some reason… Are there any reports of someone trying this?