Met pays out to solicitor

COMPENSATION: conduct of police commissioner and officers branded 'outrageous' by judge

A solicitor has accepted a 125,000 out-of-court payment for compensation and costs from the Metropolitan police commissioner and three officers after their conduct was branded 'outrageous' by a High Court judge.Robert Blick, of London firm Blick & Co, was cleared of a charge of perverting the course of justice by Bow Street magistrates relating to his refusal to hand over papers to detectives investigating an unrelated fraud committed by an employee.

He then claimed that police officers investigating employee Robert Giudice eventually arrested and detained him despite his help with their investigation.

The police also confiscated a number of confidential client files from the firm's offices.The settlement, made up of 25,000 in compensation and 100,000 costs, came this week just before his claim for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and unlawful seizure of goods was scheduled to go to trial.Although the police admitted no liability, Mr Blick accepted the settlement as further court costs could have reached 100,000.

'Considering what I have lost, and considering that it has taken a couple of years out of my life, this sum is peanuts,' he said.

Mr Blick said his experience was 'a horror story' which should be brought to the attention of all solicitors.

'The police appear to have no respect for privileged and confidential client information,' he said.

'My firm was not the first to have been "inspected" in this way and to have had privileged files removed, and I believe the problem is getting worse.' In the writ, Mr Blick claimed that after his arrest police refused him access to a solicitor, in breach of the police code of practice.

He further alleged that a police officer had told a colleague that Mr Blick was arrested 'to teach him a lesson' because he had 'not sufficiently co-operated with the earlier investigation'.High Court judge John Leslie described police actions over the solicitor's files as 'outrageous' and ordered police to return all files to him, according to Mr Blick's writ.A spokesman for the Met police confirmed the amount of money awarded to Mr Blick and that the Met had not accepted any liability.In March, Robert Giudice received an 18-month suspended sentence at Southwark Crown Court for defrauding solicitors.Victoria MacCallum