Judge rules man’s £4.8m court row with police forces can proceed to trial
Gijsbert van Buuren is suing three police forces and the Independent Office for Police Conduct
A senior judge has warned that complaints against the police should not be “swept under the carpet” as he allowed a cyclist’s £4.8 million court battle against three forces to proceed to trial.
Sir Geoffrey Vos said that it was “critical” for public confidence in policing that complaints against forces were not “ignored” amid a legal claim over allegations of “misfeasance in a public office”.
Gijsbert van Buuren is suing the Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire forces, as well as the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
He claims that all four bodies helped to conceal Cambridgeshire Police’s falsifying reports after he was knocked off his bike in Histon, near Cambridge, in August 2013, which caused him serious injuries and required him to be taken to hospital by police.
While Cambridgeshire Police officers reported that he had fallen off his bike, Mr van Buuren was later told by witnesses that he had been clipped by a passing car.
Mr van Buuren, who has no recollection of the crash and is representing himself, is now suing for £4.8 million in damages.
In January last year, he had most of his claim against Cambridgeshire Police thrown out, as well as all of his claim against the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Constabularies and the IOPC.
He challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal, claiming at a hearing last week that the High Court should have ruled in his favour before a trial as he had received no explanation for what had happened and was the victim of “untargeted malice”.
In a ruling on Tuesday, Sir Geoffrey, sitting with Lady Justice Asplin and Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing, said that lawyers for the three constabularies and the IOPC conceded at the hearing that the bodies consented to the claims against them being reinstated.
The judges also separately dismissed Mr van Buuren’s challenge to the High Court’s decision not to rule in his favour before a trial, with Sir Geoffrey stating: “I do not think that the defendants have ‘no real prospect’ of successfully defending the claim.”
He said: “There are some concerning allegations about Mr van Buuren’s physical treatment at the scene of the accident and in relation to how and when he was taken to hospital, which I would not discount as necessarily irrelevant at this stage.”
He continued: “I suggested in the course of the hearing that the defendants may not have been taking the allegations made against them sufficiently seriously.
“This case is troubling. It is critical, if public confidence in the police and in the complaints processes relating to them are to be maintained, that cases of this kind are neither ignored nor swept under the carpet.”
A trial in the claim could take place before the end of the year.