A “high-flying” black bank manager who was detained in a wrongful arrest that he believes was racially motivated is suing the Metropolitan police for £1 million.
Dale Semper, 41, was driving his partner, Denise Huggan, to the railway station in August 2017 when they were stopped by police. He was handcuffed and escorted to his home in Enfield, north London. His home was searched, as well as that of Huggan and of his mother, Linnette Semper.
Semper, a bank manager at Lloyds, was accused of a litany of crimes including firearms offences, fraud, money laundering and involvement with people smuggling, which he said had a devastating impact on his job, finances and mental health.
He was released from custody but the nightmare, he has said, continued. His bank accounts were frozen, he was suspended from his job and he developed post-traumatic stress Semper is suing the Met for about £1 million and is seeking damages for “lost earnings, psychological damage, false imprisonment, trespass and discrimination”.
He is also seeking damages for negligence, malicious prosecution and procurement of a warrant, misfeasance in public office, breach of statutory duty, misuse of private information and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018, trespass, false imprisonment, unlawful racial discrimination and unlawful harassment.
Semper complained to the Met almost immediately after he was arrested, but it was not until October 2019 that he was told by phone that the investigation had been dropped and no further action would be taken.
Following a decision at the High Court this week, Semper’s case is to go to trial in front of a civil court judge, sitting with a specialist assessor skilled in cases involving alleged racial discrimination.
Judge Hugh Southey KC said the matter was of too great public importance to be decided by jurors and instead required the expertise of a judge. He said: “In issue are allegations of the abuse of police powers. In particular, it is said there were racist motives in the actions of the police. That is said to be a matter of national interest in light of concerns about institutional racism in the Met.”
“Mr Semper has plateaued in what was previously a high-flying career as a bank manager,” he said. “The police appear to have called up his employer and told them they believed he was involved in people smuggling. That led to his employer taking all sorts of actions which we say they otherwise wouldn’t have taken.”
He added: “[Semper] was a well paid and relatively young bank employee who has suffered a serious and potentially long-term psychiatric injury as a result of the alleged unlawful actions of the police.”
The family, the barrister continued, wanted answers as to why “a black man — a businessman and successful bank manager — would be put through what he was put through”.
The case will go before a judge at Central London county court. No date has been set.
