Copperccino to go? Met Police officer sacked for running coffee shop while suspended
PC Stanley Kennett, 31, was denied the opportunity to register The Coffee Cycle as a business interest while suspended from duty on April 23, 2024
A Metropolitan Police officer has been sacked after he was caught running a coffee shop while suspended.
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PC Stanley Kennett, 31, was denied the opportunity to register The Coffee Cycle as a business interest while suspended from duty on April 23, 2024.
The company, based in a bike shop in Storrington, West Sussex, provided catering for events alongside serving coffee, cake and pastries.
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Despite the rejection, bosses discovered in September 2025 that the officer continued to "engage in and operate this unauthorised business interest” whilst receiving full pay from the force.
Pc Kennett was listed as a director on Companies House when the Coffee Cycle was incorporated on April 1, 2025.
He was found to have breached police standards of professional behaviour amounting to gross misconduct at a misconduct hearing on February 12 and was dismissed without notice.
Commander Andy Brittain said at the ruling: "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.
"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."
Commander Brittain added: "Running a business, whether for financial gain or not, whilst suspended on full pay, brings policing and the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) in particular into disrepute. "Members of the public would not expect serving police officers to act in this way."
Pc Kennett, who had been suspended from duty on full pay since October 2023, admitted his actions but accepted that they amounted to misconduct only.
He has now been placed on the College of Policing’s barred list.