Senior police officer who wrote the Met's drugs strategy fired for second time after refusing to take drugs test
TEST SHUNNED Senior police officer who wrote the Met's drugs strategy fired for second time after refusing to take drugs test
A SENIOR police officer has been fired for a second time after refusing to take a drugs test.
Commander Julian Bennett last year successfully appealed against his initial dismissal in 2023.
The Met then ordered a fresh misconduct hearing for his refusal to provide a urine sample in 2020.
It again found him guilty of gross misconduct.
The cop, on the force since 1976, had been suspended on full pay throughout the process.
Met Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said: 'I am 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. Commander Bennett has never disputed he refused a lawful order to take a drugs test.
'As a senior officer who had chaired misconduct hearings, Commander Bennett was highly experienced and knew full well what was required of him, yet he made a choice not to co-operate.
'He has been suspended on full pay for an extraordinary length of time. 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.'
Mr Bennett wrote the Met's drugs strategy for 2017-21, titled Dealing With The Impact Of Drugs On Communities.
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