Engineer gets $.1M for false imprisonment

Justice Joan Charles made the award, which included exemplary damages, to Azard Ali, owner of A&E Electrical Engineering Ltd, for false imprisonment.

Ali, whose company provided electrical engineering services, was accused of the larceny of the circuit board from TSI Energy and was arrested by police on December 4, 2008.

He denied the allegation, telling the police the circuit board was being held a lien for outstanding sums owed to him by TSI Energy. Ali was nevertheless arrested and imprisoned for six hours at two police stations.

He was eventually released when the owner of the circuit board visited the police station and made arrangements for the payment of the outstanding monies.

In her ruling, the judge said she rejected the evidence of the arresting officer, PC Harrysingh.

She found there was no evidence that the officer had an honest belief that Ali had committed the arrestable offence of larceny.

The judge also cited the policeman’s failure to make a record of his interview with the owner of the circuit board as one of the reasons for rejecting his evidence, noting also that the officer breached the police’s standing orders.

There was also no station diary entry of the report made by the circuit board’s owner, and she said she was led to the conclusion that the policeman was “doing the owner a favour” rather than making any professional attempt to conduct a police investigation of a report of a crime.

“The circumstances of his detention amounted to an abuse of police authority and oppressive conduct by agents of the State against a citizen,” she said.

She also held that there was no need to detain Ali or keep him in custody and the purpose of his detention was to break his will and cause him to return the circuit board, regardless of the contractual issues.

Ali was represented by attorneys Alana Rambarran and Kent Samlal of Freedom House Chambers.