Samuel Toynbee

Introduction

Samuel Toynbee, a special constable with Lincolnshire Police, was dismissed from the special constabulary without notice after a disciplinary panel ruled that a drugs test showing indicators of cocaine in his system amounted to gross misconduct. Toynbee, who had served more than 2,000 volunteer hours over two years, told the hearing he had never taken cocaine and argued the results must have come from “coming into contact with drug users and dealers on a daily basis” — an explanation the panel’s independent toxicologist did not accept. The case, reported on 29 September 2026, ended both his volunteer police role and his application to become a regular officer, and resulted in his placement on the police barred list.

Background Information

Toynbee served as a special constable — a volunteer police officer with the same powers as regular constables — with Lincolnshire Police for roughly two years, accumulating more than 2,000 hours of service. In July 2025, seeking to turn the volunteer role into a career, he applied to become a regular constable, a process that included a drugs test. He was subsequently suspended, and remained suspended from the special constabulary in the period between the test and the misconduct hearing. The hearing took place at Grantham police station, with the Local Democracy Reporting Service attending.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Panel finding, not a criminal conviction. Toynbee has not been charged with any drug offence. The finding against him is a disciplinary one: a police panel concluded on the evidence before it that he had taken cocaine, a conclusion he denies.

The drugs test that triggered the case was a hair sample analysis conducted as part of his application to become a regular constable in July 2025. The panel heard that the sample showed cocaine at 0.48 nanograms per milligram — just below the 0.5 nanogram cut-off — but that benzoylecgonine, the compound that appears when cocaine has broken down in the body, tested at 0.052 nanograms per milligram, above the 0.05 cut-off. Independent toxicologist Kirsty Watson told the hearing she believed “ingestion was more likely than exposure” given the levels, directly countering Toynbee’s environmental-contamination explanation.

Toynbee’s defence to the panel was categorical. He said he “never has and never will take cocaine”. He asked the panel: “I dedicated vast amounts of time and effort to my dream job. Why would I jeopardise that by taking drugs?” and said he “was absolutely devastated by the test results” and had “100% never taken any illicit drugs”. He attributed the findings to incidental exposure through “coming into contact with drug users and dealers on a daily basis” — a reference to the environment a volunteer officer policing Lincolnshire communities might encounter. The panel was not persuaded. Chair Charley Rimmer said the evidence pointed towards Toynbee having taken cocaine, in breach of police standards, and told him: “You have behaved in a manner which discredits the police service and undermines public confidence.”

The panel ruled his actions amounted to discreditable conduct — a breach of the Standards of Professional Behaviour — and dismissed him from the special constabulary without notice, the police equivalent of summary dismissal.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The dismissal was reported by the BBC and the Local Democracy Reporting Service on 29 September 2026, with the case turning on the clash between the officer’s denial and the toxicology. The panel’s findings carried two formal consequences: the loss of his volunteer role, and placement on the barred list, which prevents him from working in any police force in future — including, in practical terms, ending the regular-constable application that had prompted the test. No comment from Lincolnshire Police beyond the hearing outcome is recorded in the reporting, and no appeal by Toynbee is noted.

The case sits within a wider run of conduct findings against volunteer officers, including other special constables removed after failing vetting or drugs-related checks; for Lincolnshire the outcome demonstrates that the same standards applied to paid officers are enforced against volunteers with thousands of hours of service.

Current Status

Toynbee was dismissed without notice from the special constabulary and placed on the police barred list. The panel’s ruling as reported does not record any appeal, and there is no indication of criminal proceedings arising from the test. His assertion of innocence stands on the record alongside the panel’s contrary finding; the barred-list entry is the operative fact for any future policing role.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The outcome closed both paths in policing at once: the volunteer special constable role he had held for two years, and the regular officer application he had built that service towards. A person barred from policing cannot re-apply in any force, so the 2,000-plus hours of service ended in a finding that forecloses the career he told the panel was his dream job. The public record of the case preserves both his denials and the toxicologist’s finding that ingestion was more likely than exposure — a dispute that only a successful appeal could revisit. The reporting notes no other employment consequences.

Sources

• *BBC News, “Lincolnshire Police dismisses special constable for cocaine,” Sep 29, 2026 — source