Stanley Kennett Met Police: stanley kennett met police sacked for running coffee business

PC Stanley Kennett, 31, has been dismissed for gross misconduct after running The Coffee Cycle while receiving full pay from the force. The ruling follows findings that he continued to "engage in and operate this unauthorised business interest" despite being denied permission.

Background and suspension dates

PC Kennett had been suspended from duty on full pay since October 2023. He applied to run The Coffee Cycle in April 2024 but was declined, and on 23 April 2024 he was denied the opportunity to register The Coffee Cycle as a business interest while suspended from duty. Kennett was listed as a director on Companies House when the Coffee Cycle was incorporated on 1 April 2025.

Stanley Kennett Met Police ruling

At a misconduct hearing on 12 February, Kennett was found to have breached police standards of professional behaviour amounting to gross misconduct and was dismissed without notice. 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. He admitted his actions but accepted that they amounted to misconduct only and has now been placed on the College of Policing’s barred list.

Business operation and local details

The Coffee Cycle is based in a bike shop in Storrington, West Sussex. The business serves coffee, cake and pastries and provides catering for events, details shown on its website and social media. Commander 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. "

Hearing comments and force reaction

At the ruling, Commander Brittain added: "All of which appears to undermine the submission on his behalf that at relevant points he lacked capacity to understand the significance of the consequences of his actions. " He also said: "Running a business, whether for financial gain or not, whilst suspended on full pay, brings policing and the MPS in particular into disrepute. Members of the public would not expect serving police officers to act in this way. "

Other officers and tribunals

The Met dismissed two officers for running businesses whilst being paid within a week. 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. At a separate tribunal on the same day it was heard that 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. Witnesses gave a sequence of events for Brierley: he 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; video footage from the east London bar showed him 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 said Brierley had "smelt drunk" and other staff reported his speech had been "slurred. "

Other unrelated details noted

Also present in the material considered alongside these cases were other factual items: eating processed meat such as ham, bacon and salami is linked to an increased risk of bowel cancer, and possibly stomach cancer; last year, it took an average of five months for a house purchase across Britain to go through the completion process; and GfK’s Consumer Confidence Index dropped three points to minus 19 in February to a level last seen in November, despite easing inflation.

The Met’s dismissal of PC Stanley Kennett and the contemporaneous tribunal material record a sequence of applications, refusals, incorporation, continued business activity while on full pay, a misconduct hearing on 12 February, and dismissal without notice.