Black Bank Manager Seeks £1M in Lawsuit Against Metropolitan Police Over Alleged Racial Bias in Two-Year Probe

A black bank manager, Dale Semper, has filed a £1 million lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police, alleging wrongful accusation and deep trauma after being mistakenly linked to a gun crime, leading to a two-year investigation causing immense stress and suspending his £72,000-a-year role at Lloyds Bank. 

Alongside his partner, Denise Huggan, and his mother, Linnette Semper, who has worked for the NHS for 20 years, Semper seeks damages for lost earnings, psychological harm, false imprisonment, trespass, and discrimination. 

The case is moving to trial in front of a civil court judge and an expert "assessor" specializing in cases of alleged racial discrimination. Semper recounts being stopped by police while driving his partner to a train station in August 2017, subsequently handcuffed, and subjected to a search of his home under suspicion of gun possession, later shifting to a money laundering investigation. 

The investigation was dropped in October 2019, after which Semper faced frozen bank accounts and extensive scrutiny of his finances. 

His lawsuit against the Met encompasses claims of racial discrimination, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, misfeasance, and breach of data protection, asserting police misconduct based on skewed racial profiling, an allegation the force refutes, citing "reasonable and probable cause" for their actions. 

While Semper's lawyer highlights a significant potential compensation primarily driven by loss of earnings and substantial psychological damage, the Met denies liability, dismissing the £1 million claim as overly ambitious and attributing Semper's career challenges to unrelated factors. 

No trial date has been set. In prior statements, Semper expressed belief that racial bias influenced the police's treatment, arguing that a white manager wouldn't have faced similar pursuit and asserting detectives' inability to comprehend a black professional's success without a criminal history.

 

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