Sacking of Met commander over drugs test overturned

Julian Bennett began serving with the Met in 1976

The sacking of a senior Metropolitan Police officer over his failure to provide a sample for a drugs test has been overturned.

Former commander Julian Bennett - who wrote the force’s drugs strategy for 2017-21 - was found to have committed gross misconduct by refusing to provide a urine specimen after he was accused of smoking cannabis.

He appealed against his dismissal before the Police Appeal Tribunal on Friday and it was quashed.

Scotland Yard said it was considering a legal challenge about the decision, saying senior officers were expected to "lead by example".

A new hearing will take place and Mr Bennett will not return to duty while the force "weighs up its options", the Met said.

Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said: "I am very concerned by this decision and I have no doubt that the public and hardworking colleagues across the Met will be appalled that this case remains unresolved after such a long time.

"It very clearly illustrates why reform of the misconduct process is so needed and why the Met has been calling for urgent change."

'Cannabis before breakfast'

In October last year, a disciplinary panel rejected a claim by Mr Bennett’s former flatmate Sheila Gomes that he had used cannabis daily before breakfast.

But it found that he had breached professional standards when he refused to do a drugs test.

Instead, he offered to resign on the spot and asked for a meeting with then-commissioner Dame Cressida Dick.

Mr Bennett said he had been taking CBD (cannabidiol) to treat facial palsy and was worried the sample would come up positive for an innocent reason.

By failing to provide the sample, Mr Bennett was found to have breached force standards for honesty and integrity, orders and instructions and discreditable conduct.

His lawyers argued that while he had always admitted refusing to provide a sample, the panel found him guilty of a lack of integrity that he had not been charged with.

This meant that the misconduct finding was not permissible, they claimed.

A date for the new hearing has not been set yet.