Met officers in stop and search of top athletes get jobs back

Two former Metropolitan police officers who were sacked over a stop and search involving the British athlete Bianca Williams have been given back their jobs after winning an appeal.

- Haroon Siddique

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 returning from training in July 2020 - with their three-year-old son, Zuri, in the back 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, yesterday the police appeals tribunal overturned that decision, describing it as "irrational" and "inconsistent" - and said they should receive full back pay.

Damien Moore, the appeals tribunal chair, said the officers were "dedicated, hard-working and much respected officers" whose reputations had been "ruined" by the original findings.