NOVANEWS
Andrew Sinclair, 47, was dragged from his car by six police officers
He was thrown in the cells and held for nearly three hours
Police spotted him driving slowly past Manchester Airport
He is awarded compensation after jury rule he was unlawfully detained
A father-of-three had his fingers broken as he was wrongly arrested in front of his partner and children for ‘driving too slowly’ past an airport.
Andrew Sinclair, 47, was thrown in the cells and held for around three hours after being pulled over as he drove away from the terminal.
Andrew Sinclair, 47, was thrown in the cells and held for around three hours after being pulled over as he drove away from the terminal.
The mechanic has now won compensation after a County Court jury ruled there had been no justification for detaining him outside Manchester Airport.
Mr Sinclair, from Stockport, was stopped because he was not driving quickly enough as he waited for his partner Michelle Saddoo, 40, to catch up in another car as he collected his son.
As the father explained the situation to the motorcycle officer, police from a nearby Tactical Aid Unit – which had been called to manage an immigration protest at the airport – became involved in the dispute in March 2009.The father was pushed to the ground by around half-a-dozen officers and arrested in front of his partner and their children before being taken to a police station.
As the father explained the situation to the motorcycle officer, police from a nearby Tactical Aid Unit – which had been called to manage an immigration protest at the airport – became involved in the dispute in March 2009.The father was pushed to the ground by around half-a-dozen officers and arrested in front of his partner and their children before being taken to a police station.
Officers later claimed he had been arrested for a breach of the peace outside Terminal Two. But a jury at Manchester County Court ruled there had been no justification for detaining him.
Mr Sinclair said: ‘As soon as the Tactical Aid Unit officers came over they seemed to have adopted an aggressive, bullying attitude and started searching the car and pushing me around before they threw me to the floor.
‘They never explained to me that I’d been arrested and they just locked me up, then a few hours later they released me without any explanation. I knew what had happened wasn’t right and that night I decided I was going to fight it.
‘I’m just a normal person and for four years this has always been at the back of my mind and caused me a lot of stress but it was something I didn’t want to just let go, because they abused their power and like anyone else the police need to be held to account.’Mr Sinclair was collecting his son, Reis, and the 23-year-old’s Honda Civic car as he was unable to drive himself home after suffering head injuries, a broken wrist and broken collarbone in a motoring accident while on holiday in Dubai.
Ms Saddoo was supposed to be driving the family car home with their two young children Aliyah, three, and four-month-old Tayo in the back seat.
Ms Saddoo was supposed to be driving the family car home with their two young children Aliyah, three, and four-month-old Tayo in the back seat.
She said: ‘We were just a normal, everyday family going about our normal, everyday business and there was no reason whatsoever for them to behave in the way they did.
