Police arrested or detained you without charging you with an offence.


When a police officer arrests, or detains you to achieve a benefit for a bailiff, the police officer commits an offence.[1]

The arrested person may sue for unlawful arrest or false imprisonment where he can show inadequate grounds for suspecting them to be guilty of an offence.[2]

Police should only make an arrest without a warrant when the suspect is about to commit a crime, or committed a crime.[3]

You will need to show you were detained and no grounds exist for that detention. This can include being held by an officer, cuffed or put into a police vehicle. Then it is up to the police to prove they justified the detention.[4]

There is no minimum period of detention, it can be less than a minute.

The litigation for unlawful arrest or false imprisonment, should be brought against the police by a solicitor who can calculate your police abuse compensation.



[1] Section 26 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015
[2] Police Service for Northern Ireland v Smith [2019] NIQB 39 (11 April 2019)
[3] Section 24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
[4] Hicks v Faulkner [1881] 8 QBD 167