Former courts boss hit by police action after 'wrong' report sees stinger deployed
The former chief prosecutor has asked for two police forces to discuss how his car tyres were taken out by a stinger after the wrong report was issued.
Nazir Afzal has taken to Twitter to suggest that Greater Manchester Police and West Midlands Police chat with him after a stinger was deployed to take out his car tyres at 20mph in Manchester.
Mr Afzal, who is originally from Birmingham, said he was told his car had been reported stolen and, following police procedure, the stinger was deployed.
He then said that West Midlands Police had erroneously logged a report with one digit wrong and said it had looked like he had reported his car stolen.
He finished his tweet by saying that he had replace the four tyres, after having recently put on four new tyres, and said that there needed to be a chat between him and the two forces.
He said: "Tale of two police forces
"Last night, following police procedure, Greater Manchester Police deployed a stinger to take my car’s tyres out at 20mph as it had been reported stolen.
"West Midlands Police had erroneously logged a report with one digit wrong and, bizarrely, with me reporting it stolen.
"Think we need to chat.
"I now have four new tyres to replace the four new tyres I recently put on."
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: "We have personally apologised to Mr Afzal for the inconvenience and upset caused when his car was stopped on the M56 by our colleagues at Greater Manchester Police.
"We have looked into how this occurred and discovered it was an administrative error whereby West Midlands Police have recorded one digit of a vehicle registration number of a stolen car incorrectly.
"We have put measures in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again."
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "At around 11.25pm on Sunday, July 9, officers from the Roads Policing Unit responding to intelligence from another force deployed a stinger device on the M56 near Wythenshawe.
"A vehicle was brought to a safe stop, but enquires revealed the information provided was incorrect.
"Arrangements were made to recover both the driver and the vehicle, in addition to the replacement of the four tyres."
