Man gets £100k after wrongly spending time in prison

Lawyer says Gary Webb’s experience was ‘nothing short of outrageous’

Gary Webb was taken to police cell despite showing officers ID to prove he was not suspect in question (iStock)

An innocent man has received £100,000 after being wrongly arrested and held in prison for several nights.

Gary Webb will receive compensation from Police Scotland after officers incorrectly identified him as the suspect they were looking for and detained him, even after he showed ID proving it was a case of mistaken identity.

It has now been ruled that the police acted illegally in arresting Mr Webb, who has no previous convictions.

He has claimed that detectives came to his home while looking for someone else and held a picture of the suspect up to his face, concluding they were the same person.

Despite showing his passport and driving licence, officers took the former timber yard manager to the police station.

“I was at home with my wife then being held in cuffs with no one believing who I was and facing the worst kind of criminal charges imaginable,” he said. ”I thought I was going insane.”

Mr Webb, from Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway, told The Sunday Post that police had his fingerprints and knew he was the wrong man.

He spent a night in a police cell and three nights in Addiewell Prison while awaiting a trial in 2015, but was let go without an explanation.

Gordon Dalyell, partner at Digby Brown Solicitors who represented Mr Webb, said: “The arrest and continued detention of Mr Webb was nothing short of outrageous.”

Mr Webb contacted the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) after his formal complaint was dismissed by an internal investigation.

Five officers were arrested but it was later deemed none would face prosecution.

Assistant Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: “We recognise the significant impact this incident and our poor initial response had on Mr Webb.”

He said the force will “offer an unreserved apology” to the 60-year-old following the ruling and that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has asked Pirc to investigate, but that no criminal proceedings are due to take place.

Scottish Conservative shadow ­justice secretary Liam Kerr said: “There still appear to be unanswered questions.

“We need to know why this ­happened, why it went on so long and why a resolution has only been found several years later.”

Press Association contributed to this report