$1.03m award after family prosecuted for seven years

THE Office of the Attorney General has been ordered to pay more than $1 million to a five-member Rio Claro family who were prosecuted for drug offences for seven years before the charges were dismissed.

In a judgment delivered last Friday, High Court Judge Robin Mohammed found that the prosecution was malicious and that police officers had no reasonable and probable cause to arrest and charge the five.

The judge awarded a total of $620,000 in general damages, $150,000 in exemplary damages and $75,805 in special damages. Interest amounted to $83,997.23, while prescribed costs were fixed at $102,550.23, bringing the total monetary award to $1,032,352.46.