My client Emily Bennet lived at an address in Northwich, Cheshire with her young son and daughter, then aged 5 & 6 respectively. One morning, the family were all upstairs in their house when Emily saw a man downstairs and froze in fear, believing him to be a burglar. Her fear multiplied as she realised that the man was not alone, and two other members of this ‘gang’ of intruders started to come up the stairs towards her and her children.
Although one of the men now began to shout “Police, Police, stay where you are, don’t move your hands“ they were not wearing Police uniforms, and had produced no warrant cards or other form of identification. Emily was terrified and her young children hysterical. One of the men now stood by the Bennets, whilst others began to search the rooms around them.
The man ‘guarding’ Emily shouted at her “Don’t move your hands” and then “Who else is in the property?” From their behaviour, Emily now began to guess that the men were indeed Police Officers, although this was hardly reassuring for her. She was told that the officers had a warrant to search for ‘drugs’ and was repeatedly asked where was ‘the male’. Emily informed the officers that no man lived in the premises, it was just her and her children.
Emily was now instructed to come downstairs “to do the admin.” She accompanied the Officers into the living room. She noticed that none of these men were wearing masks or gloves notwithstanding the ongoing Covid pandemic. Emily asked if she could take her son and daughter outside because they were traumatised enough and she did not want them to witness the search; the officer replied they were not allowed to leave the premises.
Emily and her children sat on one sofa and one of the Officers sat on the other sofa. Emily could see a second Policeman in the kitchen on his phone and a third walking around the house. This third Policeman then asked Emily what number she lived at i.e what house they were in, and when she told him, the Officer pronounced “It’s the wrong house!”. Throughout this time, both Emily and the children were crying and upset. It now became clear that the Officers had actually intended to search the house next door to Emily’s.
Nevertheless, the officers remained in Emily’s house for approximately 20 minutes, and as they were leaving they instructed Emily to wait inside whilst they went to the neighbouring property. Emily then heard her neighbours’ door being smashed in and the Officers shouting “Police, Police“.
Emily had to wait in her house, as instructed, for the officers to return from their search of the target premises, and she and her children thus remained prisoners, nervous and on edge in their own home for around a further 2 hours.
One of the Police Officers did then return and ‘apologised’ to Emily for their mistake, but in a flippant and half-hearted manner, that was more of an excuse than an apology, stating that what happened was ‘one of those things’ and that ‘it happens’.
To Emily, the officers appeared to have no understanding or empathy as to what they had done and the harm caused. She lost faith and confidence in Cheshire Police and would think twice about contacting the Force for help/assistance in the future. To compound matters, Emily subsequently heard from the Officers’ supervisor by telephone and found him too to be dismissive of what had happened, trying to dissuade her from pursuing a ‘pointless’ complaint and flippantly commenting “If it makes any difference, I was on my way round with a box of maltesers”.
Emily and her children were left in a state of shock and the psychological ramifications of this Police intrusion into their lives would take a lot of hard work and heartache to resolve. Their sense of safety and security in their own home had been grossly violated and Emily’s own trauma was multiplied by her awareness of her children’s upset and her desperate wish to protect them.
In response to letters of claim which I sent to Cheshire Constabulary on behalf of the family, the Police quickly admitted liability for their mistake – but failed to make any meaningful offers of settlement, resulting in me having to commence Court proceedings and drag the Police almost to the doors of Court, before my clients’ claims were finally settled in December 2023, only a week before the scheduled trial for a total of £41,210 plus legal costs.
My client’s name has been changed.
Read more in this blog post: £41,000 Damages For Family After Cheshire Police Raid The Wrong House
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