Two ex-Met police officers reinstated with back pay after appeal over Bianca Williams stop-and-search incident
Two former Metropolitan Police officers have been reinstated and will receive back pay after successfully appealing a ruling that they lied about smelling cannabis during a stop and search of Team GB athletes Bianca Williams and her partner.
Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks were dismissed last year after a disciplinary panel found they had falsely claimed to smell cannabis when stopping Olympic sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos and Williams in July 2020.
However, the Police Appeals Tribunal overturned this decision, calling the original ruling “irrational” and “inconsistent.” Tribunal chairman Damien Moore said: “Both officers did not lie. Both officers will now be reinstated to the Met Police. They should receive back-pay.”
The officers stopped the couple, who were driving home from training with their three-month-old baby, but no drugs or weapons were found. The incident drew public criticism after video footage showed a distressed Williams during the stop, fearing separation from her child.
The Tribunal said Clapham and Franks were “dedicated, hard-working and much respected officers” whose reputations were unfairly damaged by the original findings. Another officer on the scene, who also claimed to smell cannabis, was not found to have lied.
The officers had been accused of racially profiling the couple alongside fellow Met officers Acting Police Sergeant Rachel Simpson, Pc Allan Casey and Pc Michael Bond. The police followed the athletes as they drove to their west London home from training with their baby son, then three months old, in the back seat of their Mercedes.
The couple were handcuffed and searched on suspicion of having drugs and weapons after they were pulled over outside their property, but nothing was found. Mr Dos Santos accused the officers of detaining him for “DWB, driving while black”.
He later said the stop and allegations against him were "based on racist stereotypes and show very little has changed in policing in London since the Stephen Lawrence case."
The two officers were later sacked following a hearing where they were found to have lied about smelling cannabis in Mr dos Santos' car and so had breached professional standards of police behaviour in relation to honesty and integrity. Allegations against three other officers were not proven.
People then raised over £55,000 in an online campaign in support of the sacked officers.