I have written before about how the incompetence of Capita Plc, the private company responsible for operating the Electronic Monitoring Service (EMS) which supervises criminal convicts/ suspects who have been released with a condition to wear an electronic tag, has led to many cases of unlawful arrest.
The role of EMS employees is to monitor the person’s whereabouts, using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology linked to electronic devices worn on the ankle (tags), to ensure they do not breach any curfew or geographical boundaries which have been imposed upon them by the Court. When they get it wrong, a person’s liberty is unfairly put at risk, as happened recently to my client Mark.
In late 2023, Mark, who lives in south-east London, was facing criminal charges and had been granted conditional bail with an obligation to wear a GPS tag and a condition not to go north of the River Thames.
In early January 2024, Mark’s bail condition was varied such that he could go north of the Thames, as long as he stayed within the confines of London’s outer ring road, the M25 motorway. Having no desire to spend time in prison on remand, Mark scrupulously obeyed these Court- mandated boundaries and so it was with great shock that, a month later, he received notification that he was “wanted on warrant” i.e that the Police were actively seeking to arrest him and that he needed to attend his nearest Police Station so that matters could be dealt with.
That same day, Mark duly attended his local Police Station; he explained that he had received a letter requiring his attendance, but that he had not in fact breached his bail conditions.
Notwithstanding this, Mark was then arrested for alleged breach of those conditions. He was kept in custody overnight before being transported in handcuffs to the Magistrates’ Court the next morning.
At approximately 1p.m., Mark was produced before the Court whereupon it was evident that his bail conditions had now been properly checked, and the allegation of breach of bail was summarily dismissed.
Although Mark was now told he was free, Court staff then insisted that he had to return to his cell whilst the ‘necessary paperwork’ was completed, this added further to his understandable distress, but he was told that the longer he objected, the longer the process would take.
Mark had pre- existing depression and was already under a lot of stress given the prosecution he was facing; sadly his inexplicable arrest in these circumstances significantly exacerbated his mental health conditions.
When I learned what had happened to Mark, I was more than happy to represent him in bringing a claim on a “no win, no fee” basis against Capita/ EMS, who from their past form I fully suspected were to blame for what had happened to him – as indeed proved to be the case. Capita had reported Mark to the Police as being in breach of his bail for entering the “exclusion zone” north of the Thames – notwithstanding the fact that, owing to variation of his bail conditions, Mark was free to come and go within the M25 limits.
I am pleased to confirm that I have this week settled Mark’s claim for £7,300 damages, plus his legal costs.
It seems to me that the Capita staff tasked with monitoring the tag system are in need of special monitoring themselves. Until Capita improve their staff training and levels of service, critical errors like this are going to continue to occur.
My client’s name has been changed.
Iain Gould - Actions Against the Police Solicitor 
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