Wiping Clean a Record of Arrest
On 19 January 2011 our client was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill a disgruntled employee. He was arrested and detained for a few hours. Our client thought nothing more of it until a couple of years later when during a routine Police stop, the Police Officer commented that our client had previously been arrested for threats to kill. Our client, a man of good character, a company director, was offended by this remark and felt it was blemish on his good character. We were instructed to look into the matter. We pursued a claim against the Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police alleging the arrest on 19 January 2011 was unlawful. Despite denying liability, the Police reached an out-of-Court settlement. North Yorkshire Police paid our client £2000.00 in compensation, deleted his DNA, fingerprints and the fact that he was arrested from records and paid his legal costs.
The matter was handled by our Mr G S Kang, Head of the Police Actions Team, who commented that “an individual’s arrest has far reaching consequences because its recorded despite nothing coming of it. The arrest and detention were for a short period but it was important for our client to establish that his arrest was unlawful so that he could have records wiped clean”.