Met Police forced to say sorry to homeless man whose tent was binned | UK News

Anthony Sinclair was illegally arrested for refusing to abandon his tent – in which he was sleeping near a hospital in central London – after police issued a dispersal order.

Footage showed police throwing the tents of homeless people into lorries, telling them they were banned from the area.

The incident happened on November 10, 2023, on Huntley Street, Camden, just a few days after former home secretary Suella Braverman railed against homeless people living in tents, claiming that some were doing so as ‘a lifestyle choice’.

Mr Sinclair was wrongfully arrested when he refused to leave, on the grounds that a dispersal order cannot stop someone accessing where they live.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley admitted that his officers acted unlawfully on the day – only after human rights charity Liberty threatened legal action against the Met.

The force accepted that it was not lawful for officers to authorise a dispersal order or to issue directions to Mr Sinclair, particularly because he had been living in that place for an extended period.

It also accepted that in doing so, officers unlawfully interfered with his right to respect for his private and family life, under the Human Rights Act.

Mr Sinclair said: ‘The treatment that I and others received at the hands of police officers was inhumane.

‘I was arrested for refusing to leave the place where I had been living for eight months, and while I was held for six hours in custody, my tent and other belongings were taken away and destroyed.