In April 2024 Officers from Staffordshire Police attended the home of my client Bikram, who was then 25 years old. Bikram is a young man of unblemished character. He was not home at the time of the Officers’ visit, but his parents were and they informed him what had happened. Bikram dutifully attended his local Police Station the same day and was stunned to be arrested on suspicion of a sexual assault said to have occurred in the Thames Valley area in July 2023, and of which Bikram knew absolutely nothing.
Bikram immediately denied the offence but was fully compliant with the officers; regardless, they proceeded to handcuff him – a sadly all too common misuse of force by the Police, who often seem to treat handcuffing as if it were an essential part of even the most routine arrests of non- violent people. My client was then conveyed to a nearby custody suite. Whilst on route to custody, the arresting officer questioned Bikram as to whether he was “19 or 20”, based on the suspect’s year of birth being 2004. My client corrected her that he was aged 25, but apparently this didn’t ring any alarm bells.
On arrival at custody, Bikram was produced before the custody desk and the circumstances of his arrest were recorded.Bikram again denied the offence and pointed out that he did not have the same date of birth as the alleged suspect, which was given as 05/08/2004. Bikram was able to produce several items of ID – including his driving licence – which confirmed his actual date of birth (which was in 1999).
Despite this, Bikram’s detention was authorised “to obtain evidence by questioning” – although the date of birth discrepancy was noted, and that Staffordshire Police would now need to liaise with Thames Valley Police, who had made the arrest request.
My client was then searched, and his fingerprints, DNA and photograph were taken. A further entry on his custody record at 21:00 noted:
I have liaised with arresting officer who has spoken to a Sergeant in [Thames Valley Police] who states that the DOB for DP [Detained Person] came from intel. No further details. Explained that our DP has a different DOB.
No ETA for a Thames Valley officer to attend…
I have since spoken to Sgt Windridge at Stafford, who will chase this with arresting officer and [Thames Valley] Sergeant. I have explained that due to discrepancy between DOB on W/M [Wanted Male] report and unclear link to the Stafford address, then we may have the wrong person in custody, therefore this needs to be progressed ASAP…
Notwithstanding this, Bikram remained in custody.
Staffordshire Police then contacted Sergeant Brown of Thames Valley Police who stated that, despite the discrepancy of the date of birth, he was satisfied that the correct person had been arrested.
Bikram was held overnight and the following day, Thames Valley Police officers attended and interviewed him. During the interview Bikram again denied the offence, asserted that it was a case of mistaken identity and that he had proof he was not in Thames Valley at the time. On the instruction of the Thames Valley Police officers, my client was released on bail later the same day at 07:13.
On 25 May, Thames Valley Police confirmed that there would be no further action against Bikram, accepting that they had got the wrong man.
As a result of his arrest Bikram had suffered not only the loss of over 15 hours of his life in terms of liberty, but the mental trauma of being accused of such a serious offence, made all the worse by the torment of Bikram’s parents learning that the Police were looking for their son. You can well imagine the distress which this caused to both Bikram and his parents.
Thames Valley Police initially tried to push any blame for this incident on to Staffordshire Police, saying that as it was they who actually arrested Bikram, the onus was on them to provide the ‘reasoning behind this’. But it was upon Thames Valley Police that the finger of blame rested for my client’s wrongful arrest and false imprisonment. The victim of the crime in July 2023 had identified the perpetrator as a man with the same name as my client, but who resided in the Thames Valley area and who had a totally different date of birth. When Thames Valley Police’s attempts to locate this man proved unsuccessful – indeed, it appeared he had fled the country by purchasing a one way ticket to Qatar – the Officer investigating the case had carried out a voter registration check, which identified a man with the same first name and surname as the suspect, albeit living in a totally different area of the country i.e. my client Bikram, residing in Stafford.
Crucially, the voters’ check had been carried out without any date of birth being inputted, and so the investigating Police Officer at Thames Valley requested a Force ‘Intelligence Officer’ to carry out an Experian credit check on the Staffordshire address to confirm that the person living there not only shared the suspect’s first and last names, but also his date of birth. The Intelligence Officer reported that the Experian check matched the suspect’s details, overlooking the fact that it did not. The Experian check had in fact confirmed that the person residing at the Staffordshire address had a different date of birth to that of the suspect – but despite the fact that checking that particular detail was the whole purpose of the task, the Intelligence Officer had failed to relay this to the Investigating Officer. Accordingly, the Investigating Officer – under the impression that Bikram’s details exactly matched that of the suspect – sent an arrest request to Staffordshire Police and the rest, as they say, is history.
Thames Valley Police eventually held their hands up, accepting that “organisational learning” was required as “if the incorrect DOB had been noted at this stage, then it is unlikely that an arrest attempt would have been instigated”.
Or to translate that sentence from the tortured bureaucratic jargon in which it was written: this was a total, and easily avoidable, balls- up.
Blame was placed upon the Intelligence Officer herself who was said to be “Very young in service at the time and should have highlighted the discrepancy with the different DOB in the reports she supplied”.
Sadly, she did not, and as a result of her atrocious error my client suffered significant trauma; as Bikram later wrote “Being arrested is mentally draining, particularly when you have been arrested and had to spend the night in a cell for a crime that you never committed”.
Our modern-day Police Forces are equipped with vast resources and remits to go intrusively data- snooping into citizens’ lives; they must therefore be ready to provide compensation when they commit such acts of gross incompetency as this one during the course of their investigations.
I am pleased to confirm that after submitting a letter of claim against Thames Valley Police, I have recently secured a settlement for my client of £10,000 damages, plus legal costs.
“Organisational learning” is an opaque phrase, and those of us wearily familiar with the reluctance of the Police to implement change or show genuine contrition in the face of outside criticism, may question if it has any real meaning at all; but hopefully £10,000 will add some weight to the lessons learned on this occasion…
However, monetary damages are not the only reward of a successful claim like this, or even the most important. I am currently assisting Bikram in bringing a record deletion request to ACRO (the Criminal Records Office) in order to expunge the data – both written and biometric – which was taken from him at the time of his wrongful arrest. A successful claim for compensation is a strong precursor to a successful ACRO deletion request.
My client’s name has been changed.
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