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.
Bennett was accused of smoking cannabis daily by a former lodger, Sheila Gomes. The panel, however, found her account implausible given that none of Bennett’s colleagues had noticed any change in his behaviour over this period.
WhatsApp messages that Gomes sent to a friend showed “vitriol” towards Bennett after their relationship deteriorated, as well as a “propensity to lie”, the panel found.
The three-person panel also accepted Bennett’s reasoning that he had refused the drug test because he had taken legal CBD oil to treat his painful medical condition of Bells palsy, and that he feared this would give a positive result, rejecting another allegation that he had lied.
However, the panel noted that Bennett would have been aware of the gravity of refusing a lawful order to give a urine sample, since he was a senior officer who had previously led disciplinary panels, and was told by a colleague that it would be better to take the test and explain the situation to a police doctor, rather than resign.
The Met’s assistant commissioner, Barbara Gray, said: “Julian Bennett’s actions were deplorable. He was a senior officer and showed complete disregard and disrespect for the standards we must all uphold.
“The public will justifiably be outraged that any police officer, but particularly one of such a senior rank, refused a lawful order to take a drug test.
“Cmdr Bennett was highly experienced and knew full well what was required of him, yet he made a choice not to cooperate. He could have been in no doubt of the professional standards required as he was responsible for chairing the misconduct hearings of numerous officers between 2010 and 2016.”
Bennett was further accused of trying to stage a “cover-up” after refusing to take a drug test, by contacting the then commissioner Cressida Dick to ask to resign.
The panel concluded that given he had intentionally failed to follow a lawful order to take a drug test, and had deliberately sought “personal advantage and special treatment” by contacting Dick, he had “failed to live up to the high standards expected of him” and “undermined public confidence” in the Met.
The chair, Akbar Khan, said the most likely reason for Bennett deciding to involve Dick “was to secure for himself high-level cover to deflect inevitable criticism and embarrassment that would come his way”.
He questioned Bennett’s reasoning, since he should have known that “if the goal of resignation was to avoid embarrassing the [Met], this was unlikely to be achieved” – as had been proven through the media attention given to the disciplinary process.
A statement released on behalf of Bennett said: “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.
“Since Cdr Benett has been found guilty of a lack of integrity that he had not been charged with, Cdr Bennett has no choice but to appeal so that the sanction decision is re-taken on a proper rather than improper basis.”
As mitigating factors, the panel noted that the episode of misconduct was a “single episode of brief duration” and that Bennett had shown insight into his poor decisions in hindsight.
Bennett wrote the force’s drug strategy for 2017-21 as a commander for territorial policing. He presided over 74 police misconduct hearings – 69 as chair – between June 2010 and February 2012, which led to the dismissal of 56 officers, earning him the nickname “Sacker”. He has been suspended on full pay since July 2021.
