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Disciplinary panel had found Julian Bennett guilty of gross misconduct for refusing test when accused of smoking cannabis
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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.
No, I’m outraged that as a rule, police officers don’t refuse to take part in the absurd war on drugs, which drug tests are part of.
He has been suspended on full pay since July 2021.
Why?
He wanted to resign immediately. They wanted to put him through the full disciplinary enquiry
It does seem weird that we have to pay him to ensure he doesn’t slope away on “gardening leave” and escape the enquiry.
There are presumably implications of being sacked instead of resigning. Like losing his pension?
The one thing police officers do have a good handle of is their own work benefits, so I think you’re right in your assumptions.
Losing is pension and picking up alternative lucrative employment.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
“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.
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.
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”.
The original article contains 688 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
