Bianca Williams stop-and-search officers given jobs back at Met

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 Williams and her fellow Olympic sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos in Maida Vale, west London.

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

Last year’s disciplinary tribunal found that Clapham and Franks had been “untruthful”, 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.

However, on Friday, the police appeals tribunal overturned that decision, describing it as “irrational” and “inconsistent” – and said they should receive full back pay.

The appeals tribunal chair, Damien Moore, said the officers were “dedicated, hard-working and much respected officers” whose reputations had been “ruined” by the original findings. “Both officers did not lie,” said Moore. “Both officers will now be reinstated to the Met police. They should receive back pay.”

Dos Santos said they would challenge the “disappointing” outcome in the civil courts. “Our drive home from training in 2020, with our baby, should never have turned into a violent incident, where we were wrongly accused of smelling of drugs. We are professional athletes,” he said. “We pride ourselves on not doing drugs. The actions and allegations of the officers were completely unacceptable.”

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which brought the cases against the officers, said it noted the outcome and would await the written decision.

Three other officers were acquitted of gross misconduct in October last year over the incident. At Thursday’s 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.

Davies said the original decision had been “inherently unreasonable” and officers had “every reason to suspect criminality” when they pulled Dos Santos over.

Dos Santos’s lawyer, Jules Carey of Bindmans LLP, said he was unsurprised it had been overturned. “It was irrational to say that some officers smelled cannabis and some did not,” he said. “The panel got itself into a complete mess as soon as they settled on the bizarre view that the streets of London smell of cannabis.”

Williams and Dos Santos were detained for 45 minutes, handcuffed and searched on suspicion of possessing drugs and weapons.

Officers’ handling of the incident came under scrutiny after their coach, Linford Christie, accused the Met of institutional racism and posted footage of the couple being forced out of the car as a visibly distressed Williams said repeatedly: “My son is in the car.”

The Met police apologised days after the incident but has always denied it was a result of institutional racism.

The disciplinary panel last year found as unproven claims that race played a part in their treatment.

After Franks and Clapham’s dismissal, an online appeal for them raised more than £150,000, some reportedly from serving officers.

Rick Prior, the chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the officers had been sacked for doing their job, adding: “Justice has been served.” He accused the IOPC of “a political witch-hunt against two hard-working police officers”.

He added:“It remains astonishing that officers lost their jobs for doing their job.”