Senior Met officer Julian Bennett sacked for refusing drug test

Senior Met Police officer, Cdr Julian Bennett, has been sacked for refusing a drug test for cannabis. 

Bennet joined the Met in 1976 and drew up the force’s anti-drugs strategy, his actions have been found to have amounted to gross misconduct. 

A three-person disciplinary panel cleared him of smoking the illicit substance.

His former flatmate Sheila Gomes accused him of using it daily before heading to work at New Scotland Yard.

She reported Bennett in July 2020 and, in the presence of an assistant commissioner, he was asked to provide a sample. He offered to resign on the spot instead.