Two former Metropolitan police<\/a> officers sacked over a stop and search involving the British athlete Bianca Williams have been handed back their jobs after winning an appeal.<\/p>\n

PCs Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks were dismissed in October last year after being found by a disciplinary tribunal to have lied about smelling cannabis after pulling over Williams and her fellow Olympic sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos<\/a> in Maida Vale, west London.<\/p>\n

The athletes had been driving back from training in July 2020 \u2013 with their three-year-old son, Zuri, in the back seat of their Mercedes \u2013 when they were followed by police who claimed the car could be linked to gang activity.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s disciplinary tribunal found that Clapham and Franks had been \u201cuntruthful\u201d, there was no objective basis for believing Dos Santos had cannabis in his car or on his person, and that their conduct amounted to gross misconduct.<\/p>\n

However, on Friday, the police appeals tribunal overturned that decision, describing it as \u201cirrational\u201d and \u201cinconsistent\u201d \u2013 and said they should receive full back pay.<\/p>\n

The appeals tribunal chair, Damien Moore, said the officers were \u201cdedicated, hard-working and much respected officers\u201d whose reputations had been \u201cruined\u201d by the original findings. \u201cBoth officers did not lie,\u201d said Moore. \u201cBoth officers will now be reinstated to the Met police. They should receive back pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent Office for Police Conduct<\/a>, which brought the cases against the officers, said it noted the outcome and would await the written decision.<\/p>\n

Three other officers were acquitted of gross misconduct in October last year over the incident. At Thursday\u2019s hearing, Hugh Davies, representing Clapham, told the police appeals tribunal that another officer at the scene had smelled cannabis but was not found to have lied.<\/p>\n

Davies said the original decision had been \u201cinherently unreasonable\u201d and officers had \u201cevery reason to suspect criminality\u201d when they pulled Dos Santos over.<\/p>\n

Williams and Dos Santos were detained for 45 minutes, handcuffed and searched on suspicion of possessing drugs and weapons.<\/p>\n

Officers\u2019 handling of the incident came under scrutiny after their coach, Linford Christie, accused the Met of institutional racism<\/a> and posted footage of the couple being forced out of the car as a visibly distressed Williams said repeatedly: \u201cMy son is in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Met police apologised<\/a> days after the incident but has always denied it was a result of institutional racism. Dos Santos, who is regularly drug tested because of his occupation, said after the original decision that he had been stopped by police more than 20 times since the age of 13 and repeated the allegation of institutional racism.<\/p>\n

The disciplinary panel last year found as unproven claims that race played a part in their treatment.<\/p>\n

After Franks and Clapham\u2019s dismissal, an online appeal<\/a> for them raised more than \u00a3150,000, some reportedly from serving officers. An email was sent to every member of one of the 12 basic command units \u2013 into which the Met police is divided \u2013 in which staff were urged to donate.<\/p>\n

Rick Prior, chair of the Metropolitan Police<\/a> Federation, said the officers had been sacked for doing their job, adding: \u201cJustice has been served.\u201d He accused the IOPC of \u201ca political witch-hunt against two hard-working police officers\u201d. He added: \u201cLondoners would want officers to act when they saw such behaviour on our roads \u2026 and it remains astonishing that officers lost their jobs for doing their job.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source: www.theguardian.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two former Metropolitan police officers sacked over a stop and search involving the British athlete Bianca Williams have been handed back their jobs after winning an appeal. PCs Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks were dismissed in October last year after being found by a disciplinary tribunal to have lied about smelling cannabis after pulling over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy"],"yoast_head":"\n