swarb.co.uk - law index
These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.
Police - From: 1996 To: 1996
This page lists 30 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.
Slater v Commissioner of Metropolitan Police Times, 23 January 1996
23 Jan 1996
QBD
Criminal Practice, Police
Police have no power to retain cash on basis that it represented a fraudulent claim for benefits.
Scotland v Commissioner of Metropolitan Police Times, 30 January 1996
30 Jan 1996
CA
Damages, Police
In a false imprisonment case, the Judge is to give guidance only to the jury on possible damages awards.
Regina v Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Ex Parte Hay; Regina v Same Ex Parte Police Comp Authority Times, 15 February 1996
15 Feb 1996
QBD
Police
The administrative and prosecutorial functions within a police authority are to be kept separate.
Swinney and Another v Chief Constable of Northumbria; CA 22-Mar-1996 - Times, 28 March 1996; [1997] QBD 464; [1996] EWCA Civ 1322; [1997] QB 464; [1996] 3 WLR 968; [1996] 3 All ER 449; [1996] PNLR 473
Lancashire County Council v Municipal Mutual Insurance Ltd; CA 3-Apr-1996 - Gazette, 05 June 1996; Times, 08 April 1996; [1997] QB 897; [1996] EWCA Civ 1345
Percy and Another v Hall and Others [1996] EWCA Civ 1348; (1996) 160 JP Rep 788; [1997] QB 924; [1996] 4 All ER 523; [1997] 3 WLR 573
10 May 1996
CA
Simon Brown, Peter Gibson, Schiemann LJJ
Torts - Other, Police
The claimants, demonstrators at Menwith Hill Station, asserted that repeated arrests for trespass were made under unlawful byelaws. Iparticular they said that the restrictions on trespass were unlawful, since the area was not clearly defined.
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Kinnunen v Finland 24950/94; [1996] ECHR 104
15 May 1996
ECHR
Human Rights, Police
(Commission) In a criminal case of fraud, the claimant said the retention of his photographs and fingerprints by the police after his acquittal, infringed his right to private life. The Commission rejected the complaint, but noted that the information had been properly taken on his arrest, did not contain any surveillance or similar information or opinions which he might wish to refute, and therefore "was not of such a character that it could have adversely affected the applicant any more significantly than the publicly known fact that he had been charged with, but acquitted of, certain charges."
European Convention on Human Rights 8
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Director of Public Prosecutions v Waite Times, 17 May 1996; (1996) 160 JP 545
17 May 1996
QBD
Crime, Police
The defendant had a scanner tuned to listen in to the police channel. He committed an offence under the section.
Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 5(b)(i)
1 Citers
Silcott v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis Times, 09 July 1996; [1996] 8 Admin LR 633; [1996] EWCA Civ 1311
24 May 1996
CA
Simon Brown LJ, Neill LJ, Waite LJ
Police, Torts - Other
The claimant had been convicted of the murder of PC Blakelock. The only substantial evidence was in the form of the notes of interview he said were fabricated by senior officers. His eventual appeal on this basis was not resisted. He now appealed against the striking out of his actions for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and misfeasance in public office. He had remained in prison after conviction on another charge of murder. Held: The appeal failed. The public policy purposes underlying the immunity were essentially two-fold. First, as in Munster, namely '. . to protect persons acting bona fide, who under a different rule would be liable, not perhaps to verdicts and judgments against them, but to the vexation of defending actions' and secondly as in Roy v. Prior '. . to avoid a multiplicity of actions in which the value or truth of their evidence would be tried over again."
1 Cites
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Percy and Another v Hall and Others Times, 31 May 1996; [1997] QB 924
31 May 1996
QBD
Simon Brown LJ, Schliemann LJ
Torts - Other, Police, Administrative
There was no wrongful arrest where the bylaw under which it was made was invalid. The question is the belief of the arresting officers. The effect of retrospective legislation is not always fully worked through. English law provides no cause of action for invalid administrative acts as such. A "second actor" may be blameless if he detains a person in reliance on what appears to be a lawful authority, whether issued by a "first actor" or otherwise.
Simon Brown LJ said of a byelaw under consideration: "Better . . to treat the instrument as valid unless so uncertain in its language as to have no ascertainable meaning, or so unclear in its effect as to be incapable of certain application in any case."
1 Citers
Regina v Greater Manchester Police Authority and Others, Ex Parte Century Motors Farnworth Ltd; QBD 31-May-1996 - Times, 31 May 1996
Stan Goodman v Commissioners of Police for Metropolis [1996] EWCA Civ 526
22 Jul 1996
CA
Police
[ Bailii ]
Chief Constable of Leicestershire Constabulary Chief Constable of Northumbria Police v Garavelli [1996] EWHC Admin 51
30 Jul 1996
Admn
Police
Regina v Crown and Justices of South Western Magistrates Court and Commissioner of Police for Metropolis ex parte Cofie [1996] EWHC Admin 54
31 Jul 1996
Admn
Police
Farah v Commissioner of Police for Metropolis Gazette, 06 November 1996; Times, 10 October 1996; [1996] EWCA Civ 684; [1998] QB 65
9 Oct 1996
CA
Discrimination, Torts - Other, Police
Individual officers, but not the police force itself are answerable in a race discrimination claim. The force is not vicariously liable for an individual officer's acts.
Race Relations Act 1976 20(g)
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Theo Palomares v Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police [1996] EWCA Civ 709
11 Oct 1996
CA
Lord Justice Beldam, Lord Justice Ward, Lord Justice Schiemann
Police, Torts - Other
The Chief Constable appealed a finding of false imprisonment. The claimant had been arrested, but later the charges were dismissed. The jury found on the trial for malicious prosecution that the officers had not believed the truth of the allegations they had made. The plaintiff had insulted the officer and later apologised. The defendant appealed saying the jury's verdict was inconsistent, and the judge's direction inadequate. Held: The jury's verdict was not inconsistent. Though the plaintiff had misbehaved, the officers had 'gilded the lily' and thrown the book at him, and the judge's approach on that point had been correct. However the judge had failed to draw distinctions which were necessary regarding the connection between the lawfulness of the arrest and later the reasonable and probable cause for the charges laid, and the honest or other belief of the officers, and later again as to damages. The jury's verdict must be set aside.
1 Cites
[ Bailii ]
Commissioner of Police for Metropolis ex parte v Padmore [1996] EWCA Civ 723
15 Oct 1996
CA
Police
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
In Re C (A Minor) (Care Proceedings: Disclosure); Re EC (Disclosure of Material) Times, 22 October 1996; [1997] Fam 76; [1996] 2 FLR 725
22 Oct 1996
CA
Children, Police
Guidance was to the courts on disclosure of care proceedings statements etc to police. But for section 12 it would have been contempt of court to have disclosed to the police matters before the children's court.
Children Act 1989 12 98
1 Citers
Wilson v Chief Constable of Lancashire Constabulary; CA 5-Nov-1996 - (2000) 1 Po LR 367; [1996] EWCA Civ 883
Regina v A W F Milling (Medical Referee) ex parte West Yorkshire Police Authority [1996] EWHC Admin 216
11 Nov 1996
Admn
Police
Medical disablement of police officer.
[ Bailii ]
Elliott v Chief Constable of Wiltshire and Others Times, 05 December 1996; [1996] TLR 693
20 Nov 1996
ChD
Sir Richard Scott, V-C
Information, Police, Torts - Other
Sir Richard Scott discussed the tort of misfeasance in public office as described in Calveley: �I would agree that the tort of misfeasance in public office does require that the misconduct complained of should be sufficiently connected with the public office that has allegedly been abused. A police officer may, out of hours and not in uniform, commit an assault. In doing so, he does not abuse his office as a police officer, notwithstanding that he will of course be liable for damages for assault and may have committed a criminal offence. On the other hand, a police officer who, as a police officer, affects an arrest but does so unlawfully, either without reasonable cause or with excessive violence, and with a malicious motive � for example, with the intention of revenging himself against an individual against whom he has a grudge � does, I would have thought, clearly abuse his office. Both cases involve unlawful assault, but the latter involves also, as the former does not, an abuse of office.
I have taken the example of assault for the purpose of making the point which I think underlies Mr Rubin�s submissions. The distinction is no different if the injury caused by the conduct complained of is economic, as in the present case, rather than physical, as in my examples. Nor, in my view, does it matter whether the conduct complained of is physical or consists, as it does in the present case, of the giving of information. In either case there must, in my view, be a connection between the misconduct complained of and the office of which the misconduct is an alleged abuse. I express no view as to whether a mere omission could ever suffice.
In the present case, on the pleadings, there is, in my opinion, the requisite connection. The senior police officer, who provided the information to the news editor, was, it is to be inferred, in possession of the information about the convictions, or at least that part of the information that was true, because he was a police officer. The inference is that either he, or some subordinate acting on his instructions, had obtained information about the plaintiff from the National Police Computer. So the police officer came into possession of that information in his capacity as, and because of his office of, police officer. Second, the senior police officer in giving the information to the news editor was purporting to act in his capacity as a police officer. That that is so is to be inferred from paragraph 9 of the statement of claim. It appears from paragraph 9 that the individual identified himself to the news editor as a senior police officer. Among other things, he said to the news editor, �We do not want him down here.� �We�, in that context, must have meant the police. He said that if there were a robbery or rape, the police would �pull in� the plaintiff for questioning. That, too, is an indication that the individual, in supplying the information to the news editor, was speaking as a police officer.
Police officers have a status at common law, and perhaps at statute as well, which is both a privilege and the source of powers and duties. If in the apparent performance of functions pertaining to their office police officers commit misconduct, then if the other ingredients of the tort of misfeasance in public office, and in particular the requisite intention to injure and resulting damage, are present the tort of misfeasance in public office is, in my opinion, made out.�
Data Protection Act 1984 28
1 Cites
1 Citers
Daly v James Sharples [1996] EWCA Civ 1003
20 Nov 1996
CA
Police, Torts - Other, Negligence
[ Bailii ]
O'Hara v Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary; HL 21-Nov-1996 - Gazette, 15 January 1997; Times, 13 December 1996; [1996] UKHL 6; [1997] AC 286; [1997] 1 All ER 129; [1997] 2 WLR 1; [1996] NI 8; [1997] Crim LR 432; [1997] 1 Cr App Rep 447
Selmouni v France [1996] ECHR 100; 25803/94
25 Nov 1996
ECHR
Human Rights, Police
European Convention on Human Rights 3
1 Citers
[ Bailii ]
Regina v Police Complaints Authority ex parte T Cahill [1996] EWHC Admin 276
26 Nov 1996
Admn
Police
[ Bailii ]
Regina v Police Complaints Authority ex parte T Cahill [1996] EWHC Admin 275
26 Nov 1996
Admn
Police
[ Bailii ]
Regina v Argent; CACD 16-Dec-1996 - [1996] EWCA Crim 1728; [1997] 2 Cr App R 27; Times, 19 December 1996
Padmore v Commissioner of Police for Metropolis [1996] EWCA Civ 1228
17 Dec 1996
CA
Police
1 Cites
[ Bailii ]
Tejendrasingh v Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire; CA 18-Dec-1996 - [1996] EWCA Civ 1256
Regina v Milling Ex Parte West Yorkshire Police Authority Times, 24 December 1996
24 Dec 1996
QBD
Police
Certificate of unemployability extends to any employment by injured officer.
Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 1987 (SI 1987/156)