The Thin Blue Line

Buckley v Thames Valley Police

Alex Buckley, Luke Buckley and Simon Buckley v Chief

Constable of Thames Valley Police, Court of Appeal (2009)

was an appeal by the claimants from a first instance decision

dismissing their claims for wrongful arrest by the defendant's

officers.

Background

On 22 January 2005, the three claimants, who are brothers, were

arrested on suspicion of being involved in a hit and run incident

in which a pedestrian had been killed.

The brief facts leading up to the arrest were that the vehicle

involved in the hit and run was a white Transit van, which was

found abandoned not far from the scene. Checks on the Police

National Computer revealed it had been driven previously by a James

Buckley. A witness to the incident reported to the police that

three young men in their mid teens ran off from the van.

A police officer who heard the radio traffic relating to the

incident rang in to say that he knew of several members of the

"Buckley" family who would be of the right age to fit the

description as reported by the witness. Another police officer was

dispatched to attend the claimants' home, where he found the

three brothers, together with their mother. During conversation,

the claimants' mother suggested that a white Transit van had

been connected with one of her other sons previously. The officer

arrested all three brothers on suspicion of causing death by

dangerous driving.

It subsequently transpired that none of the claimants had in

fact had anything to do with the hit and run incident, nor were

they related to James Buckley, the owner of the Transit van.

The claimants brought proceedings for wrongful arrest against

the defendant. At first instance, the judge found that the

arresting officer did have reasonable grounds for suspicion so as

to justify their arrest based on the information available to him.

He referred in particular to the description given by eye

witnesses, the possible connection between a Transit van and the

family and the possible connection between the two Buckley

families.

The Court of Appeal decision

The Court of Appeal upheld the findings of the County Court. In

the leading judgment, Lord Justice Hughes reiterated that the

threshold for establishing reasonable grounds for suspicion is a

low one. He found that the correct approach to making a judgment

upon the lawfulness of an arrest is not to separate out each of the

elements of the constable's state of mind and ask individually

whether each creates...