Former PCs begin appeal over athlete search sacking

A decision to sack two officers for gross misconduct after they carried out a stop and search of two athletes was "inherently unreasonable" a tribunal has heard.

British world championships medallist Bianca Williams and Portugal Olympic sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos say they were racially profiled.

Met PCs Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks were dismissed in October last year after a disciplinary panel found they lied about smelling the drug when they pulled over the couple.

The disciplinary panel found that the officers had not treated the couple less favourably because of race.

The police had followed the athletes as they drove back from training to their west London home with their baby son, then three months old, in the back seat of their Mercedes.

They were handcuffed and searched outside their west London home while their baby was in the car in July 2020.

Hugh Davies, representing Mr Clapham, said the officers had "every reason to suspect criminality" when they pulled Dos Santos over.

"Look at how he had driven. Fifteen seconds to get out of the car. His whole attitude."

Mr Davies said another officer at the scene had smelled cannabis, but was not found to have lied.

"These findings are inherently unreasonable," he continued.

"There was a smell of cannabis.

"It's unreasonable to assume Clapham did not smell cannabis in the area and lied about it.

"The idea that an officer of (Clapham's) character should lose his career is contrary to all fair sense."

Mr Davies added that he was an "absolute credit" to the police.

The appeal hearing, which is being held at the International Dispute Resolution Centre in London, is expected to reach a decision on Friday.

During the incident, the couple were pulled over by officers in Maida Vale and searched on suspicion of having drugs and weapons, but nothing was found.

Ms Williams filmed some of the incident and their coach, the British former 100m Olympic champion Linford Christie, posted the footage online, leading to it being shared widely on social media.

Misconduct panel chairwoman Chiew Yin Jones said Mr Clapham and Mr Franks' conduct had breached standards of professional behaviour in respect of honesty and integrity and this amounted to gross misconduct. They were then sacked.

On the racial bias claim made by Ms Williams, the chairwoman's conclusion stated: "Consequently, we found that PC Franks and PC Clapham by their actions did not breach the Standards of Professional Behaviour in respect of Equality and Diversity."

In the wake of their dismissal, an online appeal raised more than £150,000 for the officers.

At the Paris Olympics this summer, Ms Williams was part of the women's 4x100m quartet heat that qualified for the final and went on to win a silver medal.

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