A Canberra man who was locked up accused of throwing his bike in the path of a police officer after he fled a Boxing Day breath test has been awarded $35,000 in damages for unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution.
The police's handling of the case sparked strong criticism from a magistrate who slammed the arresting officer's "contemptuous and dismissive" attitude towards the man and his decision to arrest the accused on "suspicion" he'd breached his bail conditions.
Luke Marsh was banned from drinking alcohol when a breath test returned a reading of 0.018 after he reported to Civic police station in December 2012.
The reading prompted Mr Marsh to bolt through the front doors of the station, pursued on foot by Senior Constable Paul Yates, and run towards his push bike.
CCTV footage of the chase showed Mr Marsh picked up his bike then let go of it, causing the officer's legs to get tangled in the bike before he kept running.
Photographs tendered in court showed showed cuts and grazes to Senior Constable Yates' legs.
Mr Marsh was arrested nearby. He was later charged with causing harm to a Commonwealth law enforcement officer and assault causing actual bodily harm.
However, those charges were later dropped after footage showed Marsh hadn't looked back at the police officer or thrown the bike in front of him.
Mr Marsh's lawyers, from Ken Cush & Associates, launched legal action in the ACT Magistrates Court, seeking damages under the Human Rights Act.
The case was heard over three days in December.
Mr Marsh admitted he'd had a drink on Christmas night but denied he intended to drop the bike in the police officer's path to thwart him.
Senior Constable Yates said Mr Marsh threw the bike at him to aid his escape.
He told the court he had formed the view that Mr Marsh, who was known to officers, was "anti-police, quite violent and often violent when intoxicated". But Senior Constable Yates denied he disliked him.
Magistrate Bernadette Boss said, in a decision handed down this month, the police officer had acted only on a suspicion Marsh had breached his bail conditions and formed the view he would respond violently.
"His attitude towards Mr Marsh appeared to be contemptuous and dismissive," she said.
"Senior Constable Yates was either wilfully blind to the discretion in relation to arrest on breach of bail conditions or failed in his duty to consider the matter."
She said the police officer didn't genuinely believe Mr Marsh had looked at him and thrown the bike down, as alleged in the police statement of facts, and was "satisfied that these were embellishments inserted into the account to make out the charge".
Dr Boss found Mr Marsh's treatment amounted to malicious prosecution.
"In this matter I am satisfied that Senior Constable Yates was primarily motivated by his dislike of Mr Marsh, it was his dominant purpose."
She said the matter could have been dealt with as a bail breach and ruled the arrest was improper and unlawful.
"Senior Constable Yates not only made no attempt to deal with the matter in any other way than arrest, he was apparently ignorant of his power to proceed by any way other than arrest."
She said Marsh, who had a lengthy criminal history, was a poor witness in the case but accepted he had suffered "a real risk of imprisonment".
"Mr Marsh's evidence was that he was angry and upset by the charge laid against him and it was clear that he suffered a sense of injustice."
Dr Boss awarded Mr Marsh $20,000 in aggravated damages, $5000 in exemplary damages for the malicious prosecution and $10,000 for the unlawful arrest.