The Metropolitan police has admitted it was wrong to arrest and detain a homeless pensioner, who said their decision to remove him from his home of eight months in a tent was “inhumane”.
A letter from the Met said it will pay damages and apologise to Anthony Sinclair, 70, who had been sleeping outside a central London hospital.
On 10 November he was detained by police, days after Suella Braveman had controversially called for a crackdown on the homeless in tents, describing it as a “ lifestyle choice”.
The Met accepted it breached his human rights but said it had received complaints of homeless people in the area defecating and threatening people.
Sinclair refused to leave his tent after being given 90 minutes by an officer to obey a dispersal order. It led to him being handcuffed before being placed in a cell, but the charges have now been dropped.
Sinclair said: “The treatment that I and others received at the hands of police officers was inhumane.
“I was arrested for refusing to leave the place where I had been living for eight months and, while I was held for six hours in custody, my tent and other belongings were taken away and destroyed.
“I am glad to see this admission from the police that this was wrong, and I hope that no one in the future receives the treatment that I did.”
Lawyers instructed by the Met commissioner wrote on Tuesday to settle the case.
Officers used powers to order a dispersal under section 34 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. Where the Met went wrong was in using them to forcibly remove someone from the place they live.
The letter from Met lawyers, seen by the Guardian, said: “The commissioner accepts that the decisions were unlawful in the circumstances, in particular as regards the direction for your client to leave a place where he had been living for some time.
“The commissioner does not agree with your suggestion that the powers … could never be used in relation to homeless persons who are camping in an area … It is however accepted that in your client’s case, the dispersal authority and dispersal direction were not the appropriate course of action and that any use of the … powers ought properly to take account of whether persons are being asked to leave a place where they are living.”
The letter said University College hospital, near to where Sinclair had been living in London, “had for some months experienced issues of anti-social behaviour in connection with persons living in the tents …”
Sinclair and other homeless people picked the spot because overhanging concrete gave some shelter, the building air vents provided some warmth from heated air escaping the hospital and they felt relatively safe because it was busy and had CCTV cameras.
The letter by lawyers for the Met continued: “The commissioner is willing to acknowledge that the two decisions were unlawful and to discuss with you suitable compensation … The commissioner also offers an apology to your client.”
Sinclair, who is still sleeping rough, was backed by the civil rights group Liberty. Its lawyer Lana Adamou said: “Increasingly, people living on the streets are being subject to unfair and degrading treatment by police, putting them at risk of harm.
“This government is criminalising poverty and homelessness and police are misusing powers they have been given, such as dispersal orders, as a short-term fix to remove people from an area, instead of providing support or dealing with the root causes of these issues.”
By Met standards the decision to apologise, admit wrongdoing and offer to settle the case was relatively quick. The letter of claim from Liberty was sent on 19 December, with the Met accepting it got it wrong within a month.
For years the Met has been accused of wasting public money by dragging out legal cases, as well as exacerbating the pain of those wronged.
Adamou said: “We’re glad to see the police admit that their officers should not have treated our client or the other people affected in this way and that our client’s rights were breached, and we welcome the commissioner’s apology. This sends a clear message that dispersal orders should not be used against people living on the streets in this way.”
Elodie Berlan from Streets Kitchen, which helps the homeless, said: “This was not an isolated incident where powers were used unlawfully to disperse people and destroy their possessions. This is sadly something we witness regularly.
“Being homeless is not a crime – the fact that it exists should be.”
The Met letter said officers will receive new training in their powers.
Ch Supt Andy Carter, responsible for policing in Camden, said: “We accept that the authority and use of the powers on this occasion were unlawful.
“We don’t underestimate the impact of this incident on the man and will be meeting him to apologise in person, and listen to any views he might have.
“My officers will be taking part in further legal training around use of their dispersal powers so that we can ensure this does not happen again and that we use this tactic responsibly.”
