A Metropolitan Police commander has been sacked from the force for a second time after he refused to take a drugs test when accused of smoking cannabis.
Julian Bennett, who joined the force in 1976 and wrote its drugs strategy, was initially dismissed in October 2023 after being found to have committed gross misconduct.
After the initial ruling was quashed, a new misconduct hearing again found that the allegation of gross misconduct was proven.
Met Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said he was “enormously concerned that almost five years since this incident happened we have only now been able to dismiss Commander Bennett”.
“This should have been a simple matter,” he added, noting that Mr Bennett “never disputed he refused a lawful order to take a drugs test”.
Mr Bennett “has been suspended on full pay for an extraordinary length of time”, Mr Twist said.
“I am sure Londoners will be as outraged as we are at the utter waste of public funds spent paying a senior officer to sit at home suspended and not work,” he added.
The hearing was told Mr Bennett was asked on 21 July 2020 to provide a urine sample after reasonable cause to suspect he had taken drugs, which he refused to do. He was suspended from duty three days later.
In 2023, an independent panel found that he had committed gross misconduct by refusing the drugs test.
Mr Bennett’s former flatmate Sheila Gomes claimed at the time that he had smoked cannabis daily before breakfast and leaving for work at New Scotland Yard.
However allegations that he smoked cannabis while off duty between February 2019 and July 2020, and that he gave an untrue explanation for why he refused to do the drugs test, were found not proven.
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Mr Bennett’s initial dismissal was quashed by the Police Appeals Tribunal last July on the basis that the panel had ruled on a matter that was not part of the allegations they were asked to consider.
He wrote the force’s drugs strategy for 2017-21 as a commander for territorial policing. He has remained suspended on full pay for the duration of the proceedings.
He will now be added to the barred list held by the College of Policing, meaning he cannot be employed by police.
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In response to the 2023 ruling, Mr Bennett’s solicitors said at the time: “The panel found that Cdr Bennett did not take any drugs, cannabis or otherwise.
“The panel found Cdr Bennett guilty of refusing to take a drug test, something he had always admitted.”
