Senior Met officer who wrote drug strategy guilty of misconduct for refusing drugs test

Julian Bennett was accused of smoking cannabis but was cleared by force’s disciplinary panel

A senior Metropolitan police commander who wrote the force’s drug strategy has been found guilty of gross misconduct for refusing to take a drugs 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 drugs test on 21 July 2020.