Damages assessed for former PC jailed through colleagues’ malice

Cleveland Police has admitted liability after it was sued by ex-Pc Sultan Alam, who has battled for 17 years after he was wrongly prosecuted and convicted.

Mr Alam was jailed for handling stolen goods in 1996, two years after first being accused of “car ringing”.

He served half his 18-month sentence behind bars and, once free, began the long battle to clear his name while working as a taxi driver.

That culminated more than a decade later, in 2007, with him being cleared by the Court of Appeal.

In a civil case, the Chief Constable of Cleveland Police has admitted malicious prosecution and misfeasance in public office.

Yesterday, Mr Alam represented himself as a hearing to establish damages began at Leeds County Court.

The court heard how it would have to establish a number of factors including what rank Mr Alam was likely to have achieved by the time he retired.

Temporary Chief Superintendent Ian Richards told the hearing there was no evidence Mr Alam would have achieved any rank higher than sergeant as he had passed his sergeant exams.

In 2003, four fellow officers involved in Mr Alam’s original prosecution were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and other offences, but were acquitted.

Mr Alam, a father of two girls who were eight and six when he was convicted, separated from his wife in 2002 as a result of the turmoil the case brought to his family life.

He remarried but his second marriage failed under the pressure of what had happened and his resulting psychiatric illness.

After being cleared in 2007, he was reinstated to Cleveland Police but retired in 2009 on health grounds.

Mr Alam urged Judge Andrew Keyser QC to award exemplary damages as it was the only way left for the police force to be punished for what happened to him.

He said he was not looking for a large sum for the sake of it.

“I want to punish the defendant in this case. The only way the defendant can be punished now is by the award of a sum,” Mr Alam said.

He added: “This case is not about money. No amount of money in the world would compensate for what I have been through and what my family has gone through.

“I would gladly swap them all to undo what’s happened.”

He told the court this was “a highly unusual case”.

The judge said the racial element of the case arose because Mr Alam was “stitched-up” as a result of industrial tribunal proceedings he launched in 1993 complaining of racial discrimination.

Earlier, Fiona Barton QC, for Cleveland Police, told the court: “The overwhelming likelihood, in my submission, is that he would have ended his career as a sergeant.”

She said the force accepted it would pay basic and aggravated damages as well as damages for psychiatric injury and damages for his loss of future career.

But Miss Barton rejected the need to pay exemplary damages.

The judge adjourned the case until today when Mr Alam will continue with his submissions.