A police officer has been dismissed after pleading guilty to sexual assault.

Detective Constable Jose Poonsawat has been dismissed without notice from his duties after formerly being attached to the Central South Command Unit.

Poonsawat appeared at Croydon Magistrates Court on July 12 charged with sexual assault, after being accused of “sexually touching a woman without her consent” whilst off duty in December 2022.

He pleaded guilty and was released on court bail to appear for sentencing today (Friday).

Poonsawat was investigated by officers from Bromley and the Met’s Domestic Abuse and Sexual Offences team and was placed on restricted duties during the course of the investigation.

He was sentenced to a high-level community order for six months, given a curfew for four months – while also tagged – and ordered to pay court costs of £199.

In a hearing on Tuesday (August 20) the chair, Assistant Commissioner Pippa Mills, found that DC Poonsawat breached the standards of discreditable conduct at the level of gross misconduct and dismissed him without notice.

Following this week's hearing, DC Poonsawat will now be placed on the barred list held by the College of Policing, preventing him from future employment from police, local policing bodies and the Independent Office for Police Conduct, or His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.

Detective Superintendent Vanessa Britton, acting commander for policing in Lambeth and Southwark, said: “My thoughts are with the victim who has displayed courage in reporting this sexual assault.

“Officers are quite rightly held to account for wrongdoing by the courts.

“In this case DC Poonsawat has been held to account both by the courts and the Met's rigorous misconduct process.

"He has no place in the Met and has been rightly dismissed."