Black bank manager to sue Metropolitan Police for racial discrimination after 26-month nightmare

this is a story about one of Britain's bank managers Dale semper a really successful bank manager his mother Lynette has worked for the NHS for 20 years his partner of two decades Deniz works in human resources he said this would be to get kisses you know and this is the story of how their happy successful lives have been almost destroyed my custom to being pulled over and stopped when I'm driving cars and so I have my custom did I get it never liked it but I understood but this particular day when they've come out it was so many police officers and they said I'm we're here to arrest you for firearms and my firearms look really I said no you got a wrong person I don't get this one more way to work bank manager I do not get this Adam argued I'm not trying to explain myself and I no no no this can't be can't be economy it was the most traumatic experience ever being pulled over and before you could blink the handcuffs were rondell and he was pulled outside the car and I was trying to understand what is going on what did we do trying to get a sense from the cops and not understanding what's going on and basically just being shouted at to stay in a car be quiet we're talking to him having this played out before somebody actually gave me some information we're arresting him on fire ah I'm just like okay I can breathe now cuz I know what it is and I know we don't have any firearm so you know let's let this play out police told Dale he was being arrested for possession of a firearm and they had a warrant to search his home so at that time I'm thinking you know what 15 20 people here what is that what could I have actually done to have made something this happened why are they here around the same time police were breaking into his mother's flat while she worked at the low a hospital I work for the NHS 20 years coming July and to hear that guns going through my flat are the crazy and when I came home I saw my do a bust see that's all there's a padlock on my door a lot of thing was scattered on my house all of my draw with my panties my bras everything was pulled out thrown on the floor I wouldn't even wish that on my worst enemy back at Dale's the police his line of questioning which he says he was later to learn underpinned the allegations against him was how could he afford the things in his house a nice car Wonder Commons the police officer even said when they came in how did you get to have all these things what I don't understand is that he's clear and one does think mr. written they said we live in above all means I'm like okay no we live in above all means you don't know what I do no firearm was found in his house his partners or his mothers and for the first but certainly not the last time the family thought that would be the end of it but during the search police found just under two thousand pounds in Dale safe initially the arrest was for firearms possession now it was for money laundering how is it possible from fryer Ron to money laundry and something is not quite right and from the onset the undertone to this whole investigation was look at us we are black people this is the reason why we this is continuing and there is no end to this we both go to work we both put in our mind to fries we make sure we do that you know we didn't come from much but we're making sure that together we're on the same page we're doing it for ourselves and you know we don't ask for anything quit out there fighting for it Dale was suspended from his job at the bank police obtained a financial restraint order freezing all his assets Dale who owns a number of buy-to-let properties and with his partner shares a six-figure income says he couldn't even get a pan and out of the cash point terrified the couple replace their legal aid solicitor with a private lawyer for several weeks focusing on justifying all of Dale's financial dealings the information he provided was I have an explanation I've explained my assess my finances he produced within 24 hours a file because they said his watch his jewelry his possessions were all tainted items so under the proceeds of Crime Act 2002 they made the assertion that everything was part of the proceeds of crime they have used shoestring or false intelligence that there's a young black man with no previous convictions driving a brand new x6 enjoying life and then the next day he's the enemy of the state where his assets his finances are paralyzed his mental health compromised his whole life his on is literally being watched seven weeks after it was put in place the financial restraint order against him was dropped as there was no lawful grounds for it to remain in place he was awarded ten thousand pounds in costs by the Crown Prosecution Service once again Dale assumed this meant the case against him would be dropped once again he was wrong after months of asking the Met Police finally provided the original warrant and details of the information they used to get it it actually said that I was in said I was involved in a sham marriage money laundering thinking what I go by four different aliases different names I'm thinking okay what I'm into drugs and drugs people shop human trafficking and the worst one was terrorism alongside this litany of enormous allegations they also had to tackle a series of basic errors in the police information about Dale a British passport holder born in Montserrat there is this element of being from Jamaica which he isn't from Jamaica I am Jamaican I'm proud of being Jamaican he has no links of Jamaica apart me but he's now being it's part of what they were investigating first he's in the UK illegally that bass one thing that could have been quashed very easily you know he's got ties to trafficking trafficking come on it's like they've packed the case so highly for us to defend ourselves that is gonna overflow and the overflow is for him to end up in prison still suspended from work for months and months he was left in limbo one time he called me he was going to the gym and he called me said mommy I'm at the park and I was going to work and he called me and he was crying and he said mommy I'm going crazy why are they doing this to me you could imagine hearing that from your child oh dear it's a nightmare I can't wake up from how dark was it for you it was really really bad it got to the point where sometimes I felt like I didn't want to be around now she's like don't hurt yourself promise me you won't hurt yourself me my mother we burnt you so much I never wanted hurt never look back at me and say this is what my son has amounted to he was so such shame it's a shame eighteen months after he was first arrested he's arrested again at 20 to 7:00 in the evening on suspicion of possession of firearms Nana found at a quarter past seven just 35 minutes later he is D arrested people will say there's no smoke without fire it's entirely possible that the met police would say we had credible intelligence that justified this investigation they started off with false intelligence a man of no previous convictions no but character not touching a firearm in his life an explanation of every penny is ever earned in his life from pay slips to tax returns to cash the question I'd be asking myself as looking at this case would be to go this far surely with all the costs God knows how much the fire investigation on the CPS spent on this comparing a twenty six month case in the public purse as well as my client defending himself privately you'd think that there was something there's nothing there's absolutely nothing Dale's lawyer says from the beginning police obtained warrants based on a wholly inaccurate portrayal of Dale's character and as if he'd been a white bank manager this would never have happened on the 11th of October the Met Police tell Dale's lawyer no further action will be taken in the case there was no apology I've had to become the best bank manager for years for quite a few years is something of memories of my past and what I've achieved but a person I was before now I feel that that person is now gone like I said I feel like something has been taken away from me and I feel like I can never get that back if when someone rings my doorbell or even knocks on my door automatically I think is someone who did to get me if I'm driving and I see a police siren coming up even if it's the ambulance I'm thinking some ways tried to get me constantly I just can't get it on my head Dale is back at work though at a lower grade his hopes of becoming a director in the bank all gone it's already cost him around a hundred and forty thousand pounds in legal costs he's very conscious of others in a similar situation who couldn't afford to defend themselves he now intends to sue the met for damages the family hope for an apology it's just really hard to kind of like think okay the investigations over so okay we can now breathe I don't think we will ever be able to breathe it means so much to me that people that surround me they would know that I was innocent I just feel not if you're good people are you doing things correctly in the end you would prevail it will happen it has to happen well in response the Metropolitan Police Service said given the potential legal action it would be inappropriate to comment in detail on the case however they said they recognized the very serious nature of the allegations made and they will be fully investigated they say they work every day in and with communities on intelligence-led basis to tackle serious crime and AD where officers have not acted correctly they will take the appropriate action to ensure the public can continue to have confidence in how they place London well I'm joined now by Victor ELISA the Metropolitan's former head of diversity and head of policing in Tottenham thanks very much for joining us this evening I just wondered I know you've seen the film what do you make of it it sounds a harrowing sequence of events for Fidel and his partner in his and his mother 26 months of what must have been hell for him to get to a position when the case is dropped I mean the reassuring thing is the meta saying the are serious allegations they're going to investigate it thoroughly and that must be some consolation at this stage to Dale that there will be a thorough investigation and hopefully something positive will come out of it I mean when you became head of diversity at the Met in 2016 you said that the Met still discriminates against black people falling behind negative stereotypes do you accept that that still seems to be true in some instances in this case you know this is an allegation then this would be an investigation but taking the information that we have and the ten and a half minutes of video that you've shown there are many many things there to actually explain and some of them is very very easy to turn on and say is it because he's black and that was asked in the in the footage that you've just shown you know would that happen to a black manage without half turn if Dale had been a white blank manager and sometimes it's very very difficult to not be tempted to say no it wouldn't happen if it was a you know a white motor bank manager and some of the things have happened to him were they because he was black and again this is showing you footage living in a in a nice house you know an expensive commodity under see allegation or the questioning of how could he afford that pure land simply because of the skin of his colour so that footage indicates I mean speaking more widely these negative stereotypes that you raised when you were head of diversity at the Met they matter don't they because you said yourself that it can lead to police using disproportionate force against black people and that is a real issue that is so pertinent at the moment isn't it absolutely I mean we're all you know we're all going through living through the the killing of George Floyd in the United States we see on social media here footage of you know black elderly men being tasered and we we read in our newspapers not necessarily the violence but the disproportionate issue in a fixed penalty notice for people who have broken the lock down all these things paints a picture and the plays a picture where it sometimes is very difficult to move away and not make the assumption that you know the is there some racial motivation behind it and in essence it leaves the mess up on police as an organization in the difficult place okay so always you know there seems to be on the back foot when these stories come out and they have to work really hard to either be proactive and stop these stories coming out or have an explanation beforehand because they need to work even harder to get to a position where they can explain the rationality behind some of these stories that just look unacceptable and and point towards the allegations of the Met might be policing in the way there's discriminatory and racially discriminatory Victor Lisa I'm sorry we'll have to leave it there but thank you so much for talking to us this evening thank you very much thank you

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 2,488,291

Rating: 4.7788801 out of 5

Keywords: blacklivesmatter, blacklivesmatteruk, blacklivesmatterprotests, blacklivesmatterprotestsuk, london, BLM, edward colston, protestors, black lives matter demonstrations, covid-19, coronavirus, racial discrimination, discrimination, met, the met, police

Id: 1x0G4NCBTzg

Length: 14min 57sec (897 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 12 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Atazaetun]

Some ediat really said he can't believe this happened in this country omds lool.

The uk is just as or even more racist than america the only difference is the uk hides its racism the best. Also Brexit came before trump those americans got their inspiration from here.