Met officer sacked for running coffee business

Another Metropolitan Police officer who ran a business while receiving full pay has been sacked for gross misconduct.

PC Stanley Kennett, 31, applied to run The Coffee Cycle in April 2024 but, despite being declined, "continued to engage in and operate this unauthorised business interest", a misconduct hearing was told.

A tribunal on the same day heard another officer - former Det Con Sean Brierley - would have been sacked if he had not already left the force after he was found to be "so intoxicated that he could not walk straight" while on duty.

Last week, firearms Sgt Matt Skelt, who worked and promoted a mobile pizza service while on long term sick leave, was sacked for gross misconduct.

The Coffee Cycle business, based in a bike shop in Storrington, West Sussex, serves coffee, cake and pastries and provides catering for events, according to its website and social media.

In September 2025, it was confirmed that Kennett "continued to engage in and operate this unauthorised business interest" whilst receiving full pay from the force, the ruling said.

Cdr Andy Brittain said of the venture: "This was not simply a volunteering opportunity, this was a full-blown and expanding business supported by incorporation of that business, the granting of a director's loan and employment of staff.

"PC Kennett is also noted to have been actively engaged on social media promoting that business.

"This was a sophisticated operation, and PC Kennett appears heavily involved at all points."

At the second tribunal it was heard former Det Con Sean Brierley went to Gravity Well Taproom on the evening of 2 July 2025 after being told a suspect at Leyton police station was not yet available to be interviewed.

In video footage from the east London bar, the Metropolitan Police officer could be seen ordering three glasses of white wine over two hours.

CCTV showed Brierley "unsteady on his feet", "staggering" and "off balance" when he returned to the police station later that evening, the panel heard on 12 February.

A custody sergeant gave evidence that Brierley had "smelt drunk" and other staff reported his speech had been "slurred", the ruling said.

Panel chair Cdr Katie Lilburn wrote: "The fact that the former officer was so intoxicated that he could not walk straight meant that he was unfit to deal with a prisoner in custody, which was the purpose of him being at the police station."

Mr Brierley's colleagues had been so concerned about his state that they had arranged a welfare check at his home later that night and "found him lying in his bed in a pair of boxer shorts, with the duvet pulled off him", and said he "looked very disoriented and was staring at the ceiling in a glazed manner," the ruling said.

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