Cdr Julian Bennett who wrote the force’s current drug strategy faces accusations of taking magic mushrooms, LSD and cannabis.

The Met Police commander is facing a misconduct hearing accused of three allegations of discreditable conduct. First allegation is that he used controlled drugs while off duty between February and July 2020 while on holiday in France. Second allegation is that he refused to comply with a lawful order to provide a sample for a drugs test on 21 July 2020. The third allegation is that he lied about why he could not provide a sample on the same date.

Julian Bennett’s legal team previously made an application for the case to be dismissed but it was rejected by the panel in September. They told the hearing it was biased and cited concerns about the disclosure of evidence while urging the panel to recuse themselves. Cdr Bennett’s lawyer John Beggs KC said the current panel members failed to make “even the mildest criticism” of the police stance on disclosure and “that alone undermines the appearance of impartiality and conveys the appearance of bias.”

Panel chairman Akbar Khan said he would consider an application requesting the recusal of the entire panel and asked why Cdr Bennett’s defence team took three months to bring its recusal application. Mr Beggs accepted the application should have been quicker but accused Met for other delays in the case.

He also accused the Met for being “selective” with messages, disclosing WhatsApp messages from 2019 and 2021 but “none of the meat of the sandwich of 2020” until late last year. Mr Beggs added that there was “a complete failure to understand the duty of disclosure” on the part of the detective constable in charge of disclosure, commenting “that actually it was studied refusal to give disclosure.”

The hearing was adjourned until a date yet to be confirmed for the panel to be able to decide its ruling on the recusal application.