Police payout after horse seizure

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A police force is facing an £80,000 damages bill after a High Court judge ruled they unlawfully seized a horse.

Lancashire Police officers suspected the Irish-bred palomino gypsy cob called Romeo was stolen property.

By the time he was returned to his owners they had been deprived of the chance to put him out to stud and to produce valuable and much-prized foals.

The judge awarded owner Brian Cash the money for the wrongful detention of Romeo for four months in 2006.

Romeo was expected to earn £500 per mare in stud fees so he was sent from his home in Ireland to stay in Blackpool, where builder and horse enthusiast William Brown planned to obtain local mares for him to serve.

But police suspected Mr Brown of money-laundering, theft and handling stolen goods and seized the horse in May 2006 and kept him until August.

'No evidence'

Deputy judge David Donaldson QC said that the police initially had grounds for suspecting Romeo had been stolen, but by mid-May inquiries had provided no evidence to that effect.

The detective in charge "sat on the case" hoping that some evidence would emerge against Mr Brown, but nothing did.

But the High Court judge rejected other claims by Mr Cash for loss of stud fees, the cost of buying a replacement stallion and loss in the value of Romeo due to alleged ill-treatment while in detention.

Romeo was sold a year ago for £115,000 to an American who had already bought four of his foals.