Police broke into my home - any advice?

[NA1988]

Hello, I'm uncertain if this is the appropriate platform for seeking advice, but I would appreciate any guidance you can offer.
During the early hours of the morning, the police forcefully entered my home and apprehended my husband. 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.

I will be consulting a solicitor, however haven't had good experience in the past, so if I can I will handle the claim myself.

This happened in West Midlands UK

Thank you

I think there is a lot to unpick here, apart from thinking you watch too many episodes of The Bill

How was the search lawful? They had no warrant for that house and negligently got the wrong house

OP I can highly recommend this legal team:
https://www.bindmans.com/legal-services/individual/actions-against-police-and-state/#:~:text=We%20have%20a%20proven%20track,help%20you%20through%20the%20process.&text=Civil%20claims%20against%20the%20police,Assault%20and%20battery

Get a solicitor. It's worth it. They'll know every trick the police can pull and be ready for them. It will save you a lot of stress in the long run.

I'm sorry this happened to you and hope you get decent compensation.

If you actually click on the link and read it, you'll see that it specifically covers getting the wrong house:

Constituents sometimes ask whether they can get compensation for damage (for example to a front door) following forced entry by the police. Police forces do sometimes make ex gratia payments or pay compensation following such damage, for example where the raid was at the wrong premises. However, statutory guidance states that compensation for such damage is “unlikely to be appropriate if the search was lawful, and the force used can be shown to be reasonable, proportionate and necessary to effect entry.”

However, it does go on to say that:

If the wrong premises are searched by mistake everything possible should be done at the earliest opportunity to allay any sense of grievance and there should normally be a strong presumption in favour of paying compensation.

So the police are not obliged in law to pay for damage from entering the wrong house, but their code of practice encourages them to do so.

Just because the police got the wrong house, does not mean they were negligent. Most mistakes are not negligent (in legal terms).

The police officers at the scene admitted they only looked at google maps and did not check the OP’s house number that was clearly visible. Damage through negligence is actionable in law - I’m a lawyer and those facts on the face of it sound potentially negligent to me.

If you're a lawyer, I'm quite surprised that you did not read the link posted by @ProfessorSlocombe before commenting on it.

If you're a lawyer with knowledge of this area, does it sound likely to you that a large raid of 10-15 officers would have relied on google maps alone? There may have been an erroneous final check but it's highly unlikely that a raid of this scale would not have had more detailed planning.

So the police are not obliged in law to pay for damage from entering the wrong house, but their code of practice encourages them to do so.

Which is exactly what I said from the get go.

How was the search lawful? They had no warrant for that house and negligently got the wrong house

"Negligence" has a very specific mean when you end up in court. Especially when you are dealing with the police and need to consider appalling vistas of the implications of a negative outcome.

It sounds like the first episode of Line of Duty, where the number 6 on the door had a nail missing and had swung down so it looked like a 9. Thank goodness what happened next in LoD didn't happen to your DH. I'm so sorry you and your family had to go such a traumatic event for such a ridiculous reason.

I've had the Police burst into my house. It was during the daytime, so they came in through an unlocked door; no damage done. They didn't flash a warrant card. They had a typed letter granting the warrant to search my address, which was clearly typed on the letter. A PC showed me the warrant letter immediately whilst shouting at me to stand still and put my hands on the worktop. I told him he'd scared me, shouting at me like that. He huffed & puffed a bit & at that point & stated that they had a warrant to search the property. He did still ask me if I gave them permission to do so. No idea what would have happened if I'd said no. As I had nothing to hide, I said yes. I thought maybe a fugitive had sought refuge in my house - strange where your mind goes! My phone was taken off me & I had to sit in the lounge for about 6 hours while half a dozen Police searched the house. DH works abroad & was going frantic because he couldn't get in touch with me.

It was frightening & even now, typing it out & reliving the experience, I'm shaking & breathing shallowly. I can feel my heart hammering in my chest. No one was wrongfully arrested, no damage was done and, after the initial shouting at me, the Police were more courteous. I think they gradually realised from my demeanour and answers to their questions that I wasn't involved in any legal activity and was clueless about what they were doing there. I It was still traumatic. OP, I hope you and your children get redress.

Sorry, "I wasn't involved in any ILlegal activity"!

Are you the local Chief Constable where this happened? In the name of heaven why shouldn't the OP be compensated for what must have been a terrifying experience and could have long-term repercussions? Honestly, sometimes I wonder about the police (and those who stick up for them when they are patently in the wrong). Do they deliberately attract those without any sense? In many cases of this kind, simple straightforward checks on addresses could have prevented it. Unless they are penalised, they'll keep on doing it. You only have to look at what's happened in the past - they go on and on repeating the same mistakes.

Worth remembering that it's entirely possible for the police to follow the wrong man, lose them, and then blow their head off without warning and it's not negligence.

Have a read of the raid they did on Mikhail Friedman's house. They are now having to pay money to a sanctioned oligarch.

To be fair, the NCA was behind this too.

@FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper

I wasn't implying she should down play what happened.

In fact I think the title doesn't do what happened justice.

Compensation is not 'making money out of it', it is being compensated for the impact.

Aside from a billionaire having rather deeper pockets than the OP, I would imagine, the scenarios are different.

In Friedman's case (going on media reports), the problem was that the police did not have sufficient lawful grounds for the arrest, so anything they did to him or his property in the execution of the arrest, was necessarily outside the legal protections that the police have, if carrying out their duties lawfully.

In the OP's case, as far as we know, the police did nothing wrong by trying to arrest the true suspect, the problem was that they had the wrong man.

@NA1988

You definitely need a solicitor for this. You want a firm that specialises in "civil actions against the police" or has experience of it. You do not want to do this alone. A good lawyer is really worth it. You absolutley will not be able to get good or adequate legal advice on this over the internet from strangers.

Beyond that - you may very well have a claim here for the physical damage to the property and your husband may have a claim for wrongful arrest (false imprisonment) - although it was only brief if it was unlawful you may have a claim.

However, if the house was the wrong house the position will be different (assuming there was a valid warrant for arrest) if there was an error on the warrant or whether the police executing the warrant made the mistake.

So for example if the arrest should be made an No.1 Acacia Avenue where the actual defendant lived and you live at No.10 Acacia Avenue, the police need a warrant of arrest to enter. That is a document that will record a name and an address.

If the warrant says "10 Acacia Avenue" and the mistake was administrative, if the warrant is valid the police have a defence of lawful justification for actions which would otherwise be tortious/unlawful. Section 6 of the Constables Protection Act 1750 provides a defence for the police in respect of actions in obedience to an invalid justices’ warrant.

If the warrant says 1 Acacia Avenue and they just went to the wrong place, then the position may be different.

This is not quite the same as your case but this is a wrongful arrest case brought by Michael Barrymore. The reason I'm posting it is for you to have a look at the legal discussion which starts at paragraph 58 onwards so that you can see that this is not a straightforward area of law and you will need legal advice. I wouldn't do this myself if I were in your position.

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2018/2788.html

The other huge advantage of having solicitors involved, especially ones who are known to act in this field, is that the lawyers for the police will take it more seriously. If it is the case that you for whatever reason don't have a good legal claim, public bodies like the police have power to give an "ex gratia" payment (ie. a good will payment where there is no legal obligation to pay it) which solicitors are more likely to be able to wheedle out of them because they know what to say and which buttons to press. Unfortunately, with large public bodies, there is a tendancy to think if a person is acting for themselves, that the matter will just go away because few people have the determination or motivation or emotional capacity to take something the whole way alone.

I was responding to the idea that police events are meticulously well planned always and forevermore.

I'm not suggesting they are. But there is a lot of middle ground between meticulous planning and "We only checked Google maps when we got here".

This is off the point of the thread now but considering how many government resources went into that matter the investigative standards were essentially equivalent.

Seems fairly common based on what people have written here. I don't honk you'll have much luck chasing compensation for trauma though .

Here is a case from 2021 where the police raided the wrong house due to an administrative error. The couple who lived there lodged a claim for trespass, false imprisonment, assault and battery, and breach of article 8 of the ECHR. They eventually settled with the police for £14k plus their legal costs.

I’ve read the link dear.
it’s not incompatible with what I said. prh47bridge has posted a link to a similar case where £14k compensation was paid.