Police chiefs ordered to reinstate a custody sergeant they sacked for dragging a 59-year-old woman along the floor and throwing her into a cell will go to the High Court to challenge the decision.

Wiltshire Police will take the case of Sgt Mark Andrews to a judicial review after refusing to accept a decision of a Police Appeal Tribunal which last month had ordered he be reinstated to his job.

The saga is set to continue into a fifth year after he was jailed and then acquitted of assaulting Pamela Somerville from Colerne, who was 59 at the time, at the custody suite in Melksham police station in July 2008.

After Ms Somerville was arrested on suspicion of being drunk in charge of a car – she was released without charge – she sustained a serious head injury at the police cells when she was dragged along the floor and forced into a cell.

But after initially being found guilty of an assault charge and jailed, an appeal court quashed Mr Andrews’ conviction and he spent just six days behind bars in 2010.

Mr Andrews apologised, and said he intended to get his old job back, but despite being cleared of any criminal offence, he was still sacked by Wiltshire Police Authority for misconduct – a decision he then challenged through a Police Appeal Tribunal (PAT).

That tribunal ruled at the beginning of December that although Mr Andrews’ conduct had been “intolerant and discreditable”, he should be reinstated to his former rank immediately – something Wiltshire police chiefs have so far refused to do.

Yesterday, a spokesman announced the force would appeal against that reinstatement decision by taking the case to a judicial review: “Wiltshire police were surprised and disappointed by the PAT ruling and since then have been considering all the options available to them and taking legal advice on how this decision could be challenged,” he said.

“Wiltshire Police and Wiltshire Police Authority maintain that all police officers and staff should at all times uphold the highest standards of professional behaviour which the public have a right to expect from their police service.”