I was recently approached by an investigative journalist at the BBC who was writing a report on“the apparent rise in the police raiding wrong addresses” and seeking insight from me, in view of my expertise in that area of law.
I told him that I believe that the ‘apparent increase’ is not because the Police used to be better at this activity and made less mistakes in the past, but because people are now more aware of their rights and their entitlement to make a claim for what can be very shocking ‘home invasion’ events. In other words, Police data showing an increase in claims/ complaints would indicate more people taking action rather than more incidents occurring. I would attribute this to increased media coverage of Police misconduct cases generally (always to be welcomed) and the work of specialist solicitors such as myself in highlighting the problem.
An example in point would be the following exchange on the “Mumsnet” forum fromFebruary2024, in which the victim of just such an act of Police trespass into her home was seeking advice. Police broke into my home – any advice? | Mumsnet
Her account was as follows:
“To provide a brief overview, around 5 am, a group of 10-15 officers forcefully entered my residence, breaking down two doors in the process. The entire incident unfolded in the presence of me and our four children, making it an extremely traumatic experience. Following the entry, my husband was arrested upstairs and brought downstairs (in handcuffs). we were detain upstairs. Downstairs my husband was asked his name and to confirm our address. It was at this point that the officers realized they had mistakenly targeted the wrong address. Subsequently, my husband was uncuffed, and the entire team of officers vacated our premises. The damaged doors were boarded up, and we were advised to file a claim. While we have received payment for the doors, we are now seeking further redress for the trespass, violation of privacy, arrest/detainment, trauma. Our youngest child is 8 years old, and our eldest is 14. I would like to inquire about what aspects I can seek compensation for and at what estimated value.”
One of the replies to this enquiry encapsulated what I suspect was a common misunderstanding in the past – “I would be surprised if you will get any money for this, no matter how terrifying it was. It was a dreadful mistake but a mistake nonetheless…”
Thankfully, however, they were corrected by the next poster, who queried “Honest mistake or carelessness?” and pointed the original enquirer to my blog.
Getting the Best Advice
I am proud to be part of the information eco-system which is helping to ensure people both know their rights and how to enforce them; and in the long run, it can be hoped that the increase in such claims will force the Police to get their house in order, and lead to less of these nightmarish events plaguing the lives of innocent families.
One important caveat I would add, however, is to make sure that your claim is handled by a real expert in this field of law, such as myself. The increase in publicity about bungled Police raids has tempted many law firms who are not specialists to advertise for this type of work and clients who go with such firms (whose experience is generally rooted in accident claims rather than actions against the Police/ Human Rights law) risk having their case as badly mishandled as the original Police operation was. I have recently had to ‘rescue’ a family from Merseyside who were wrongly advised by their original solicitors that the maximum amount of money they would receive would be the cost of replacing the door which the Police had sawed open… They were presenting the claim in entirely the wrong way, but since I became involved Merseyside Police have both admitted liability and apologised to my clients and a substantial settlement will follow in the near future; one that will buy them more than just a new front door.
I will write about the full details of that Merseyside case once it is concluded, but in the meantime, read about some of the many other cases in which I have assisted clients whose homes have been broken into by the Police. To call them ‘mistakes’ minimises their horrendous impact on people’s lives and is not an excuse I will ever let the Police hide behind.
- £57,000 damages for a family in Reading, raided by Police whose warrant was for ‘next door’
- £41,000 damages for a Cheshire family “burgled” by the Police
- Substantial damages awarded to a Derbyshire family after Police came looking for an address which didn’t exist
How you can help me
I hope that you have enjoyed reading this week’s blog post and the many others available on this website. If you have, then I would like to ask you a favour – in a world in which large and non-specialist law firms (generally from a personal injury background) are increasingly throwing huge marketing budgets into online advertising in order to ‘capture’ Actions Against the Police clients – I need your help to ensure that those in need of real expert advice come to the best place for representation. If you value the insights and expertise which I share on this blog, and the results which I have achieved for the people whose stories are recounted here, please post a positive review on Trustpilot to get the word out. Every 5 star review I receive makes a big difference in helping those who need the right advice to come to the right place. Thank you!
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