Black bank sues Met for £1m after being wrongly accused of gang crime
A "sucessful" black bank manager who was wrongly accused of gun crime and put in cuffs in front of his neighbours is suing the Met Police for £1million.
Dale Semper, 41, from Enfield, north London, was left in turmoil for two years after he was suspended from his £72,000-a-year role with Lloyds Bank whilst the force investigated him. Following a decision at the High Court, the case is set to go to trial in front of a civil court judge in light of the racial discrimination claim.
Mr Semper, alongside his HR manager partner, Denise Huggan, and his mum Linnette Semper, who has worked for the NHS for 20 years, are claiming damages for "lost earnings, psychological damage, false imprisonment, trespass and discrimination". The trio said they were subjected to humiliation after their home was searched by the police.
The bank manager and his partner said they were stopped by cops as he drove her to a train station in August 2017. Officers told him to get out of the car and arrested him despite him saying that they had cuffed the "wrong guy." Police then drove him back to his home, which was searched, whilst Mr Semper stood embarrassed in handcuffs outside of the property. Mr Semper was staggered when he learnt that the officers were searching for guns in his house, and also rocked when they subsequently - having found no firearms - told him he was being instead being investigated for money laundering. It was only in October 2019 that he was informed over the phone that the investigation was being dropped and that no further action would be taken.
During his two-year ordeal, Mr Semper went through the indignity of having his bank accounts frozen and had to account for all the cash he spent and earned in exhaustive detail. Mr Semper is suing the Met on multiple grounds - including racial discrimination, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, misfeasance and breach of data protection. He claims he was singled out by police due to skewed "racial profiling", although this is flatly denied by the Met, which insists it had "reasonable and probable cause" for all its officers' actions.
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The force says it was acting on intelligence and, although it did not lead to a prosecution, it was justified in investigating.
During an earlier hearing, Mr Semper's barrister Adam Wagner revealed that the "high value" case could be worth around £1 million to him and his family. "Mr Semper has plateaued in what was previously a high-flying career as a bank manager," he said during the hearing. "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. We say the police can't go around telling everybody what is being alleged. There has got to be proportionality."
He said the case includes a substantial loss of earnings claim, particularly for Mr Semper, who he said was a "well-paid and relatively young bank employee who has suffered a serious and potentially longterm psychiatric injury as a result of the alleged unlawful actions of the police." But Mr Wagner said that, as well as money, the family want answers as to why "a black man - a businessman and successful bank manager - would be put through what he was put through".
Lawyers for the Met deny all liability and say the £1m claim against them is "aspirational and enthusiastic," suggesting Mr Spencer's career path would have flattened out anyway. The case reached court after an application by Mr Semper and his family for his trial to go before a jury. Setting out their case during his ruling on the application, Judge Southey said: "The claimants rely on the importance of the issues raised by the claim as supporting the application. 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."
The Met contested the application, arguing that the important issues would be better decided by a judge, who - unlike a jury - would be able to give a "reasoned judgment" setting out detailed findings. The judge continued: "It appears to me that the significant issues of racism that are raised by this case are matters that weigh against a jury trial. It is important that there is a reasoned judgment. That will allow the claimants and the public to understand precisely what findings have been made about a highly sensitive issue and an issue where there is legitimate public interest. In light of that I have concluded that I should decline to exercise my discretion to order a jury trial." The case will go before a judge at Central London County Court, sitting with the assistance of a specialist assessor, skilled and experienced in discrimination issues. The assessor will help the judge evaluate the factual evidence at the trial, but will not make any decisions which decide the outcome of the trial. No date has been set for the trial.
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