A Kent police detective found to have described foreign gangs as “black b*****ds” has avoided the sack.

Former Special Branch officer Jamie Weale - who once managed a hate crime team - also told a colleague he “had never met an honest Albanian”.

But despite being found guilty of gross misconduct, the 49-year-old detective sergeant has been spared dismissal and instead demoted to the rank of constable.

During a two-day misconduct hearing, the 20-year veteran of Kent Police, who lives in Canterbury, insisted he was not a racist.

But an independent panel on Thursday ruled “his language was racist, discriminatory and highly inappropriate”.

It was told he made the comments while supervising the use of police vehicles at Margate station on July 16 last year.

On that day, a PC Crush, whose first name was not disclosed during the hearing, requested keys for an unmarked car so he could drive an Albanian woman to a women’s refuge in Sevenoaks.

Mr Weale’s lawyer, Guy Ladenburg, told the panel the woman had been “dumped unceremoniously by her brother” at the police station after fleeing alleged domestic abuse from her husband in Norfolk.

PC Crush said that upon requesting the keys, Mr Weale asked for more information about the woman, and began talking about his experience of organised crime from working in Special Branch’s counter-terrorism unit at the Coquelles Channel Tunnel terminal in France.

In the course of explaining this, Mr Weale told PC Crush he had “never met an honest Albanian” - a remark he conceded he had made.

In a statement, Mr Weale wrote: “I absolutely admit that in my experience every single Albanian I've come into contact with as a police officer has lied about who they are and what they do.”.

Mr Ladenburg told the hearing: “Whilst it is depressing, it is not unusual that a police officer in Kent has only come into contact with Albanians through those who are involved in organised crime.”

PC Crush also told members of the panel that, when enquiring about the Albanian woman’s brother, who had left her at the station and driven off without entering, Mr Weale stated “he’s a thief mate”. Mr Weale denied making this comment.

He also denied using the words “black b*****ds” in a lowered voice when telling PC Crush of his knowledge of Algerian and Somali gangs in the Paris Metro.

“I think I've been very clear that I did not use the word black and I definitely did not use the term black b*****ds,” Mr Weale said.

But his junior colleague told the panel: “I remember that phrase very specifically.”

Questioning PC Crush, Mr Ladenburg asked: “[Mr Weale] wasn’t just off on a casual racist tirade for his own amusement in this conversation was he?”

PC Crush responded, describing that part of the conversation as “an unusual tangent which I found uncomfortable, and then I got the car keys and went”.

He told his superiors of the incident and then filed a report via email on the same shift in the early hours of July 17, and confirmed its accuracy when asked the next day.

“I think I've been very clear that I did not use the word black and I definitely did not use the term black b*****ds...”

Presenting the case against Mr Weale, barrister Aaron Rathmell pressed him: “Can I suggest to you that the reason you’re denying using the phrase black b*****ds is because you understand that there are serious consequences and you can't reconcile that you used it on that night?”

Mr Weale continued to deny the allegation.

Earlier in the hearing Mr Weale told the panel he helped manage a hate crime team in 2018, “and the reason they chose me to do that is because from 2006 until 2007 and 2008 I had already created a hate crime team for the first time”.

In 2016, after a man was convicted of racially abusing a family on Whitstable beach, Mr Weale, who was then a PC, said in a release circulated to media outlets: "Kent Police takes all matters of racial prejudice extremely seriously and will always employ zero tolerance towards anyone demonstrating this sort of behaviour."

At this week’s hearing he said: “I’ve dedicated my whole career to Kent Police, my whole 20 years to them, the longest job I’ve ever had.

“I find it a real kick that I’m now being accused of being a racist, because I am not.”

Mr Weale added that since the accusation he had “gone through every single emotion you could imagine in the past 17 months”.

The panel was told he was in his first year as a detective sergeant at the time he made the remarks, having been promoted from detective constable.

As such he had the rank of T/DS - temporary detective sergeant - and would have retained this throughout a 12-month probationary period.

At the end of the first day of proceedings, Mr Weale got up to leave just before the end, telling the chair of the panel, William Hansen, he was going to be sick.

On the second day at Kent Police North in Northfleet, following deliberations, the panel ruled Mr Weale had used all the phrases alleged.

“We find PC Crush to be an entirely truthful witness trying to help the panel,” explained Mr Hansen, who also sits as a high court judge.

“We are satisfied that PC Crush’s recollection was reliable.”

On Mr Weale, who has not been serving in a public-facing role since the allegations were made, Mr Hansen said “the officer’s memory has obviously been clouded by the stress and emotion” of the ordeal.

The panel found Mr Weale “prone to going off point and not engaging fully with the questions he was asked”.

“Ultimately we found his denials unpersuasive when set against PC Crush’s evidence,” Mr Hansen continued.

Discussing his history with the force, however, Mr Hansen added: “We cannot find any evidence to support the suggestion that the officer is racist, which makes his comments harder to understand.”

The panel noted that dismissal without notice would be a justified outcome.

Mr Rathmell argued for Mr Weale to be sacked, stating: “He as well as anyone knows how hard the police have to work to earn the trust of diverse communities in this police area, and how easily that trust is lost.

“It’s not a matter of political correctness, it's a matter of proper thought process and proper language.

“There’s still public concern that police don’t get it and that there are prejudicial mindsets and language within the police.

“Sadly in this case the conduct you have found shows that.

“What public confidence would it serve the purposes of this proceedings for this officer to be retained even as a police constable?”

“It’s not a matter of political correctness, it's a matter of proper thought process and proper language...”

Mitigating, Mr Ladenburg argued: “As you in your judgement said, sir, this was not a gratuitous or racist tirade, it was in the context of this officer attempting to share his concerns and experience with a junior officer.

“This is someone who has very profound and passionate feelings about his policing, in particular with reference to organised crime groups.

“You have recognised in your careful judgement that what happened in that conversation was not illustrative of this officer’s character.

“It is obvious given his evidence throughout these proceedings and in his earlier account that he finds it very difficult to acknowledge that he used these words.

“Public confidence would recognise the value of his contribution such as it outweighs the very regrettable language that was used,” Mr Ladenburg added, and said a reduction in rank would be a suitable sanction.

In the panel’s judgement, Mr Hansen said Mr Weale had used “phraseology that was racist, discriminatory, perpetuates racist prejudice, and on the face of it at least demonstrates prejudice against Albanians and other ethnicities”.

“His language was racist, discriminatory and highly inappropriate,” he added.

However, the judgement also described Mr Weale as an officer “who has worked assiduously in the field of hate crime and made a positive contribution to equality and diversity”, with “no previous pattern of similar behaviour”.

“It was an ill-considered rant,” Mr Hansen added.

“We have concluded that reduction in rank is the appropriate and proportionate response.”

Mr Hansen described the decision as “not a softer option” and said the panel “came to the considered conclusion that the threshold for a dismissal had not been met”.

Detective Chief Superintendent Jon Armory, the head of professional standards at Kent Police, said: “Temporary detective sergeant Jamie Weale was proven to have made discriminatory comments to a colleague and the decision to reduce his rank from sergeant to police constable was made by a panel led by a legally qualified chair who is independent of Kent Police.

“The panel had a number of sanctions available to them after finding T/DS Weale responsible for gross misconduct, including dismissal or a final written warning, and determined that a reduction in rank was appropriate and proportionate bearing in mind his previous record and character references.

“Kent Police’s stance on discriminatory language and behaviour is very clear – it is unacceptable and there is no place for it.

“We are committed to building and maintaining lasting relationships with the many diverse communities we serve and the vast majority of our officers do so with pride and integrity at all times.

“They are also well aware of the importance of standing up to inappropriate conduct, which is what happened in the case of T/DS Weale when his behaviour was challenged and reported by a colleague to our Professional Standards Department.”