March 23, 2021 5.38 pm This story is over 36 months old

Lincolnshire Police paid out £900k to complainants over five years

A total of 64 settlements

| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Lincolnshire Police have had to pay out over £360,000 in damages and more than £530,000 in legal costs for court and out-of-court settlements over the last five years.

The Lincolnite submitted a Freedom of Information request to Lincolnshire Police in February asking for the number of court and out-of-court settlements between 2015 and 2020.

The data received on March 23 shows that during this time period 63 out-of-court and one court settlement were issued by Lincolnshire Police, which totalled £361,458.31 in damages.

In addition, a further £532,740 was paid out by the force in legal costs for these cases.

Out-of-court settlements

Police paid out a total of £267,945.30 in damages for public liability claims, with further legal costs of £409,584.85, between 2015 and 2020.

The force also had to pay out for cases of Employers Liability with damages of £81,397 and legal costs of £90,923.44.

Other claims fell under the category of ‘Motor’ with police paying out damages of £2,116.01 and legal costs of £195.

Settled in court

The one case settled in court during the same period was for public liability. Lincolnshire Police paid out £10,000 in damages and legal costs of £32,036.71.

Sharon Clark, Chief Financial Officer for Lincolnshire Police, said: “These are liability and motor claims which arise occasionally in the course of delivering our service.

“The claims history is published annually in our financial governance report. The force insures against potential claims and operates a sound system of controls in respect of the approval and settlement of claims.”

Meanwhile, police paid £4,000 to Philip Carter earlier this year after officers damaged his caravan during a search for him while he was already in police custody in October 2019.

Philip Carter was awarded £4,000 by Lincolnshire Police after officers damaged his caravan.

After his release from custody, Carter got back to his caravan and found it had been severely damaged and left insecure. This prompted him to lodge a complaint with Lincolnshire Police and Irvings Law took on his case.