False Imprisonment Claim & Compensation

FALSE IMPRISONMENT, ASSAULT AND MALICIOUS PROSECUTION: A husband and wife were at home asleep, as were their sons aged 11 and 19 years old. At approximately 3.30am four police officers came to their home and forced entry after ‘the wife’ opened the door, claiming they didn’t need a warrant. In the commotion, ‘the wife’ was forced against a wall, causing injury to her right arm, while ‘the husband’ was punched in the head, dragged to the ground outside, handcuffed and assaulted a number of times. The police conducted a search with dogs of the flat stating that they were searching for class A drugs. However, no drugs were found. ‘The husband’ and ‘the wife’ were taken to the police station where they were further arrested for immigration offences, despite being EU citizens from Italy and Portugal respectively. They were held in police custody for approximately 22 hours and were eventually charged with assaulting a police officer in the execution of his/her duty. ‘The husband’ and ‘the wife’ were prosecuted and were acquitted after a full hearing at the magistrates’ court. Hodge Jones & Allen brought claims on their behalf for false imprisonment, assault and malicious prosecution which ended in their favour and settled on 3 October 2017.