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Portsmouth manager Redknapp wins damages from police

Fri 23 May, 01:22 PM


LONDON (Reuters) - Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp won 1,000 pounds damages from the City of London Police on Friday when the High Court ruled that a search warrant issued against him during a corruption inquiry was unlawful.

"I declare that the warrant was issued unlawfully and quash the warrant," Lord Justice Latham said.

The court was told that police searched the home of Redknapp and his wife Sandra at Sandbanks on England's south coast last November at dawn.

Lord Justice Latham and Mr Justice Underhill were also told that photographers from The Sun newspaper were present both at the six a.m. search and when Redknapp left Chichester police station after being bailed later on the same day.

"The obtaining of a search warrant is never to be treated as a formality. It authorises the invasion of a person's home," Mr Justice Latham said.

He added that police failures in the way they applied for the warrant in this case were "wholly unacceptable".

"This court has complained in the past about slipshod completion of application forms such as this."

(Reporting by Roger Pearson; writing by John Mehaffey; editing by Padraic Halpin)