Place of birth: Terrorist Land

In September 2020 my client Harjinder was arrested by Kent Police for a driving offence and the following day appeared before the Magistrates’ Court where he was granted conditional bail. 

Unlike the majority of the cases in which I am instructed this was not a case in which my client was disputing the legitimacy of his arrest or alleging that the Police had physically injured him. What, in fact, aggrieved Harjinder and caused him to seek my help was an entry in his PNC (Police National Computer) record, which his criminal defence solicitor received from the Crown Prosecution Service.

Harjinder, a man of Asian descent, was born in Kent and is a British Citizen but the official PNC entry relating to his date of birth stated “13/10/80 Terrorist Land”. 

Harjinder was understandably extremely upset and distressed once he was notified of this entry.  The creation and maintenance of such an entry, enshrining in National Police records an egregiously racist and prejudicial view of Asian-descended people, was both highly offensive and disturbing.

As a result, Harjinder suffered anxiety, loss of trust in the police and fears for his future prospects of travel and employment given the existence of this slur on his character in the PNC database. Harjinder felt targeted and racially stigmatised which caused him anxiety and sleeplessness which, in turn, led him to excessive drinking as a coping mechanism.

Only when my client actively complained about the entry did Kent Police carry out an investigation and establish that the entry had been made by a member of the Metropolitan Police Service following an earlier interaction between Harjinder and the Police in January 2020.  That earlier interaction, I hasten to add, had been in regard to an allegation of nothing more serious than drunk and disorderly behaviour by my client. 

Although Kent Police quickly sought to point the finger of blame at the Met, the fact remains that it was only after they received my client’s complaint that they “updated the PNC with the correct details,” referring to the “notification of the error.” In my opinion “error” was a bizarre choice of words. Why on earth did any Police Force need to wait to have this pointed out to them before they changed it?  Were the Police Officers who had come across this entry prior to Harjinder complaining about it, as malevolently amused by it and content to let it remain unaltered as I can only presume the member of Met staff who first inputted this appalling racist slur into my client’s National (and potentially International) Police biography was?

I am pleased to confirm that I have recently settled Harjinder’s claim against the Met for substantial damages and legal costs.

But, once again, it has taken the actions of a brave and determined Claimant and his Solicitor to help the Police clear up their own mess.  The fact that the ‘Terrorist Land’ entry should have been created in the first place is bad enough – but almost equally shocking is the fact, indicative of an ambient level of racism throughout our Policing institutions, that the entry was allowed to persist unamended until my client directly challenged it.

I hope that now my client’s case is settled, this is another lesson that the Police will learn on their promised path to reform.

The name and date of birth of my client has been changed.