Former bailiff Leslie Bibby is celebrating after winning a £2,500 payout for being unlawfully arrested by Essex Police.

Mr Bibby, 56, a senior partner at Bibby and Co, in Rawreth Lane, Rayleigh, was delighted with the result at London Appeal Court which came after a five-year battle with the county's police.

Mr Bibby, 56, who has since retired after 20 years in the business, said: "It's really what I expected to happen. We weren't looking for any money. We were just looking for a judgement so we could do the job."

The saga started in 1995 when Mr Bibby was carrying out a magistrates' court order to reclaim £1,900 in business rates from a bakers on behalf of Chelmsford Borough Council.

The shop owners, Mr and Mrs Brannan, asked Mr Bibby to leave their shop, but he refused.

The police were called to the Broomfield Road bakers, Chelmsford, but they felt Mr Bibby was behaving in a threatening way so they asked him to leave.

Mr Bibby refused as he was carrying out the court order. Officers then arrested him because they feared there would be a breach of the peace.

In June last year, assistant recorder David Goodin dismissed Mr Bibby's claim for damages at Norwich County Court.

However, three appeal judges overturned that decision yesterday (Thursday) and ruled Mr Bibby was acting lawfully in 1995.

In a 12-page appeal judgement, Lord Justice Pill said: "The unreasonableness and inflexibility which the officers believed to exist in this case fell far short of conduct justifying arrest.''

He added: "Placing the bailiff in handcuffs and taking him in handcuffs through a public place and on the journey to the police station in a police car was in my view wholly unjustified.

"Even if the arrest had been justified, which it was not, the situation did not require that further indignity."

Mr Bibby decided to close his Rayleigh business at the end of January before his compensation claim reached the appeal court.

He said: "I was left feeling I had Aids or something so I thought, enough is enough, whether we were winning or losing the case, I decided to call it a day.

"If I hadn't done anything about this, it would have been accepted that this was a perfectly right thing to do and that would have been the end of it."

A spokeswoman for Essex Police said: "We are unable to comment."

Cheers - Leslie Bibby toasts his court victory

Picture: LUAN MARSHALL

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.