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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Rachel Hall

Senior officer behind Met drug strategy sacked over refusal to take drug test

Julian Bennett
Julian Bennett was found to have breached the force’s standards by refusing to provide a urine sample. Photograph: Zuma Press/Alamy

A senior Metropolitan police commander who wrote the force’s drug strategy has been sacked after he was found guilty of gross misconduct for refusing to take a drug test when he was accused of smoking cannabis.

A disciplinary panel cleared Julian Bennett, who has served in the force since 1976, of using the drug at home in late 2019, but found that he had breached force standards for honesty and integrity, orders and instructions, and discreditable conduct by refusing to provide a urine sample for a drug test on 21 July 2020.

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