Met police officers sacked over Bianca Williams stop-and-search get their jobs back after they win appeal

Two Metropolitan Police officers have been handed their jobs back after winning an appeal following their sacking for the stop-and-search of Team GB athlete Bianca Williams and her boyfriend.

Former Met PCs Jonathan Clapham and Sam Franks were dismissed in October last year after a panel found they had lied about smelling cannabis when they pulled over the Portuguese Olympic sprinter Ricardo Dos Santos, 29 and Williams, 30.

But the finding has now been overturned by the Police Appeals Tribunal which found the original decision was ‘irrational’ and ‘inconsistent’.

Former PCs Clapham and Franks were ‘dedicated, hard-working and much respected officers’ whose reputations had been ‘ruined’ by the original findings, Appeals Tribunal chairman Damien Moore said.

He added: ‘Both officers did not lie. Both officers will now be reinstated to the Met Police. They should receive back-pay.’

Ricardo Dos Santos is handcuffed in Maida Vale, north London, in July 2020 while driving along with their baby

Mr Dos Santos leaving the International Dispute Resolution Centre in central London, on Friday October 4, 2024, after the two Met officers were handed their jobs back

Mr Dos Santos being stopped and searched by Met Police officers on July 4, 2020

Police search the car of British sprinter Bianca Williams in London, Britain, July, 4, 2020

The police officers followed the athletes as they drove back from training to their west London home with their baby son in the back seat of their Mercedes. 

During the incident, officers handcuffed the couple and they were searched on suspicion of having drugs and weapons, but nothing was found.

The force came under heavy criticism after footage of the stop was posted on social media, showing a distressed Williams who was concerned about being separated from her baby.

At the hearing in October 2023 the other three officers, Acting Sgt Rachel Simpson, PC Allan Casey and PC Michael Bond were found by the panel not to have committed gross misconduct but had to carry out a ‘reflective practice review process’. 

Mr Dos Santos told the panel while giving evidence that he had been ‘afraid’ for the safety of his partner and his three-month-old son.

But when shown body-worn footage of him mocking and swearing at the officers, he accepted his behaviour, saying: ‘Everybody deals with trauma differently.’

The panel heard he was stopped nine times within four weeks of buying a car in 2018. 

The couple were stopped by police when their son (centre) was in the backseat

Bianca Williams, a European and Commonwealth gold medallist, and her partner Ricardo dos Santos

Williams during the Women’s 200m Semi-final at the Stade de France on the tenth day of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in France

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

Bianca Williams with Ricardo dos Santos and their son Zuri-Li

In December last year it was revealed he also works as an Amazon delivery driver alongside his athletics training. 

Hugh Davies, representing Clapham, said yesterday 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 smelt cannabis, but was not found to have lied.

He said: ‘These findings are inherently unreasonable. 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.’

‘He is a person who is an absolute credit to the police.’

Rick Prior, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the officers had been ‘fully exonerated and their reputations have rightly been restored’.

He said: ‘Justice has been served. Why it ever got to this point however remains an absolute mystery.’

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

The Met officers were part of a territorial support group unit who were tasked with helping to cut priority crime such as gang and knife offences. 

After the hearing at the time, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Ward said: ‘Honesty and integrity are at the core of policing and, as the panel has concluded, there can be no place in the Met for officers who do not uphold these values.’

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

In August 2022 Mr Dos Santos revealed he had been pulled over by police again two years after the original stop and search. He shared three clips on Twitter, including one of an officer withdrawing his extendable baton

Speaking out after the October 2023 hearing which led to the officers dismissal, Mr Dos Santos said: ‘The allegations made by the police officers that I was guilty of bad driving, threatening violence and drugs were dishonest. 

‘I believe these are false allegations and were based on racist stereotypes and show very little has changed in policing in London since the Stephen Lawrence case. 

‘If you can’t trust the police to be honest and accept when they have done bad and stereotype black people, what hope is there? I don’t believe that the panel has been brave enough to review what the Casey report has already clearly stated, which is that the Met Police is institutionally racist.

‘This case has taken a big toll on our family and on our careers but it’s crucial that those people who have a voice use it as those people who don’t suffer without being listened to.’

In August 2022 Mr Dos Santos revealed he had been pulled over by police again two years after the original stop and search. 

He shared three clips on Twitter, including one of an officer withdrawing his extendable baton, and said seven armed police had stopped his £57,000 Tesla. 

In December last year Williams was banned from driving over a failure to disclose the identity of the driver of a car that police alleged had committed traffic offences. 

Williams runs during the women’s 200 meter race at Hampden Park Stadium in Glasgow during the Commonwealth Games in 2014

Lavender Hill magistrates court heard imposed the ban despite being told it could jeopardise Williams’s chances of going to the Olympics. 

Williams pleaded guilty to three charges of failing to tell police the identity of a driver, but she told the court she was not driving the Tesla at the time of the alleged offences. 

Representing herself, she said she was working as a tennis coach in the evenings and as a full-time athlete during the day. 

She was disqualified from driving for six months and ordered to pay a fine of £276, a surcharge of £110 and £85 costs.

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

Last year, Ms Williams won bronze in the 4x100m at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. 

She also won gold in the same discipline at the European Championships in 2018 and silver in 2016. 

And at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and 2018, she won 4x100m gold representing England. 

Meanwhile Mr Dos Santos competed at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics in the 400m but did not receive a medal.