The Police and the Law
| Published date | 01 July 1941 |
| Date | 01 July 1941 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4101400302 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The Police and the Law
POWER
TO ARREST FOR
FELONY
COMMITTED
OUT
OF THE JURISDICTION
Diamond v. Minter and Ors.
IT is a well-established rule of the common law that a
police officer can arrest without warrant any person whom
he honestly believes on reasonable grounds to have committed
a felony, although he acts only on information supplied to
him by someone else and although no such felony has been
committed. Does this rule extend to acts committed else-
where than in England which, if they had taken place in this
country, would have been triable as felonies?
The
above rather important question arose for considera-
tion in the case of Diamond v. Minter and Others, which was
tried before Cassels J. on the r rth, rzth,
rjth,
14th, rSth,
roth
and 25th February 1941.
In
this action
the
plaintiff
was claiming damages for false imprisonment against a
detective-inspector and two detective-sergeants of the
Metropolitan Police.
In
January 1939 one John Woolcott Forbes, who had been
aprominent financier in Australia, was
"wanted"
by the
Police of New South Wales on charges of forgery and con-
spiracy to defraud. On the
loth
February of that year he was
arrested at Bombay, and proceedings were begun for his
extradition to New South Wales. He had been allowed bail.
Diamond, the plaintiff, according to his evidence, wasa person
of some importance in New South Wales, where he
had
met
Forbes, though he had never been associated in any business
transaction with him.
On the
loth
March 1939 the Stratheden, in which the
plaintiff was travelling from Sydney to Europe, touched at
Bombay.
The
plaintiff landed and met Forbes, who was
23°
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