Fox v Chief Constable of Gwent
1986 · AC 281
Posted By lanbuk.com
- Facts
- Police stopped a driver and required a breath test. The arrest that followed was unlawful. They nevertheless obtained a specimen of breath. The driver said the specimen was the product of the unlawful arrest and should be excluded.
- Issue
- Does an unlawful arrest make a later breath specimen inadmissible?
- Held
- No. The House of Lords held that the specimen was admissible. The officers had acted in good faith, under a mistake as to their powers. The illegality of the arrest did not infect the specimen.
- Principle
- A mistake about a police power is not a reason to exclude real evidence obtained afterwards.
- Why it matters
- Read it with Jeffrey v Black. Apicella is the case of a sample taken without real consent. Payne is the one exclusion, and it turned on a promise, not on the illegality as such.
Words and Latin in this note
- Bona fide purchaser
- A person who buys a legal estate in good faith, for value, without notice of an earlier equitable right. That earlier right does not bind them. Open the note.
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