A top gay police officer served in Westminster who was awarded an MBE has been summonsed to court on drugs charges.

Chief Inspector Paul Cahill, 43, is accused of possessing class A, B and C drugs after allegedly being found slumped over his wheel by passing policemen in December last year.

A search of his car on Wandsworth Road, Lambeth, allegedly unearthed a stash of drugs and he was arrested.

Cahill remains suspended from his duties and will appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court tomorrow.

Awarded an MBE for services to diversity in policing in 2004, the decorated officer is known for appearing on the cover of Gay Times in full uniform in 1997.

He first joined the police in the 1990s when he said it was “virtually not acceptable to be gay”.

Cahill was also involved in using gay officers to reassure the public and gather intelligence around Old Compton Street in the aftermath of the Soho nail bombing in 1999.

He was the chairman of the Gay Police Association until it disbanded last April and helped secure it public funding in 2002.