Public Law Solicitors

Legal 500 “Top-Tier” firm Duncan Lewis win exceptional victory in which the SSHD was found to have acted unlawfully in the immigration detention of Portuguese man which lasted over three years.

Duncan Lewis Solicitors have been successful in the application for Judicial Review in the case of a Portuguese man who was held in “unlawful” immigration imprisonment by the SSHD for over three years.

PAOLO ANTONIO -v- SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT [2014] EWHC 3720 (Admin)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE- QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION - ADMINISTRATIVE COURT

Full Judgement Available here.

The Claimant, a Portuguese national, was subject to two deportation orders from the SSHD. The Claimant claimed that “the Defendant (SSHD) was not entitled to make a second deportation order on the 9th July 2013 following the revocation of an earlier order, an order quashing the second deportation order and damages for false imprisonment for a violation of his article 5 rights in respect for his detention from September 2010 to November 2013.”

At the hearing on the dates of the 28th and 29th October, His Honour Judge Bidder QC stated that;

“It is for the person detaining to justify the detention and to show that there was a power to detain and that that power was exercised properly. The Defendant should clearly have considered prior to detaining and at all times when the issue of continuing detention had to be considered, precisely what power was being used to detain and how that power should have been correctly exercised. I suspect that the problems which have arisen following the provision of answers to those requests for particulars indicate that insufficient consideration (if any at all) was given in the past by the officers in the Defendant’s department to the necessity at all times to be clear what power of detention was being used. The Claimant’s case is that that was not done and that the Defendant is unable to justify the detention.”

Furthermore, His Honour Judge Bidder QC held that;
“The second deportation order was both unlawful when made and that detention in the period from its making to the date of release of the Claimant was unlawful.

Overall, I find that the Claimant’s detention from 18th October 2010 to the 13th November 2013 was unlawful and that he was falsely imprisoned and imprisoned in breach of article 5 of the ECHR during that period”.

Toufique Hossain, Public Law Director at Duncan Lewis, who represented the Claimant stated;

“This is an exceptional victory. The Home Secretary has been found to have acted unlawfully in falsely imprisoning our client for over three years. The Home Office’s woeful failure to justify detention on any basis is contrary to one of the established pillars of English law: the right to liberty unless lawfully justified”.

The Legal Team at Duncan Lewis representing the Claimant: Toufique Hossain, Sheroy Zaq.

Barrister – Alex Goodman, Landmark Chambers.