Wrongfully Jailed Ex-PC Awarded £800K Payout

A police officer who was wrongfully jailed after a malicious prosecution brought by colleagues in Cleveland Police has been awarded more than £800,000 in compensation.

Sultan Alam was a police constable in 1994 when he was accused of being involved in a 'car ringing' scam.

He was jailed for handling stolen goods two years later.

Mr Alam has always maintained he was persecuted because he accused a superior officer of race discrimination.

After serving nine months behind bars, he fought to clear his name and was finally cleared by the Court of Appeal in 2007.

The Chief Constable of Cleveland Police eventually admitted malicious prosecution and misfeasance in public office, paving the way to the award of £838,363 plus interest of £3,065 and costs, which have yet to be agreed.

In a prepared statement, Mr Alam said he believed the same injustice could happen to someone else.

"It does not appear to me that lessons have been learned from the last 17 years," he said.

"Safeguards need to be put in place and or improved to ensure that this never happens again."

In 2003, four fellow officers involved in Mr Alam's original prosecution were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and other offences, but were acquitted.

Mr Alam, a father of two girls who were eight and six when he was convicted, separated from his wife in 2002 as a result of the turmoil the case brought to his family life.

He remarried but his second marriage was said to have failed under the pressure of what had happened and his resulting psychiatric illness.

After being cleared in 2007, he was reinstated to Cleveland Police but retired in 2009 on health grounds.