Business Man’s Handling Stolen Goods Case Settled

Mr Matthew McConville, the Head of our specialised Actions Against the Police Department at Irvings Law has successfully represented a client who wishes to remain anonymous for the purposes of this case report in a civil claim against West Yorkshire Police.

Background

In October 2016, the wheels and tyres on a Bentley Continental GT motor car were stolen. In November 2016, the owner of the said motor car telephoned West Yorkshire Police and reported that wheels and tyres fitting the description of those stolen from his motor car were being advertised for sale by Mr McConville’s client.

The said client then received a telephone call purportedly from a customer enquiring about a set of black Bentley wheels advertised on his website and later, Police Officers from West Yorkshire Police attended this client’s business premises and to assist with their enquiries, allowed the wheels he had to be seized and taken for forensic testing.

Mr McConville’s client explained that he had purchased the wheels in cash from their supplier but the attending Police Officers refused to call the said supplier as invited by this client and instead arrested him on suspicion of handling stolen goods as the reason. This was the first time this client had been arrested and when he was booked in, explained what he had done previously to the attending Police Officers in a 16-minute interview. After interview and finally, the investigating Police Officers telephoned the supplier who verified this client’s account and as such, this client was then given no further action in respect of the offence that he was arrested for.

Representation

Upon receipt of instructions to act, assessments were made of this client’s claim and without hesitation, Mr McConville offered to act on a no win, no fee basis. After this, Mr McConville submitted a Letter of Claim to West Yorkshire Police alleging that his client was falsely imprisoned as there were no reasonable grounds to suspect this client as committing this offence and furthermore, there was no need to formally arrest him as this client would have attended to provide a voluntary interview if invited.

Resolution

In response to the same, West Yorkshire Police decided to robustly deny liability which left this client with no other option but to issue and serve Court proceedings and that is exactly what Mr McConville advised his client to do. After serving his issued Court proceedings, West Yorkshire Police finally realised the difficulties in defending such a matter any further and so settlement discussions were had between the parties which resulted in this client settling his claim for £3,500.00 plus legal costs.