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Landmark ruling permits UK woman to challenge stop and search

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Summary of story from BBC News, July 8, 2011

In a landmark UK ruling, a woman has won permission to challenge the legality of the police’s stop and search powers.

Ann Juliette Roberts, 37, of Upper Edmonton, said the Metropolitan Police use the powers disproportionately against black people.

She said that, as a black woman, the fact she did not have enough money on her Oyster card led to a clash with Met officers.

High Court judges ruled her case raised ‘important issues’ and gave the special needs assistant the go-ahead to seek judicial review.

She was searched under Section 60 of the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in September 2010 because an officer believed she was holding her bag in a manner that suggested she had something to hide, her lawyers said.

Officers found bank cards with different identities, which she explained were in her name, her maiden name – having recently married – and her son’s name.

She was arrested on suspicion of fraud and given a drugs test, which she was told showed she had a small amount of crack cocaine in her system.

She later received a caution for obstruction and tested negative for illicit substances.

A Met spokesman said: ‘We will consider the decision and prepare our evidence to defend the claim.’

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