Frank Bruno should report stop incident

I imagine Frank Bruno thought it would have just added insult to injury for him to trundle down to his local police station to report that he had just been humiliated by members of its own team.

Instead he mentioned the matter in a radio interview this week.

The former heavyweight champion told BBC Radio 5 Live how local police stopped him and accused him of stealing his own car.

Bruno said that he was driving his 45,000 (GBP) Mercedes ML sports car, with personalised number plates, when he was stopped by officers in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.

He said: "I thought they were joking, I thought it was a hidden camera show. They asked ‘Have you nicked the car'?

"They said there's a lot of high performance cars, sir, being stolen around the area. I could see them laughing like two hyenas in their car, but I didn't find it funny."

Bruno, who lives in Leighton Buzzard, Beds said that they recognised him; they knew who he was and clearly thought it was funny to question him.

Because he has not formally reported the incident, the officers are, at present, off the hook, which has enabled a spokesperson for Hertfordshire Police to say: "Hertfordshire Constabulary takes pride in its reputation on treating members of the public with the utmost respect and dignity at all times.

"We take complaints from members of the public who believe they have not been treated in this manner extremely seriously.

"To date, we have not received a formal complaint in relation to this alleged incident and would encourage anyone who believes they have not been treated in an appropriate manner to contact us without delay."

Bruno probably won’t have the last laugh, but hurt feelings aside, he should have the incident documented and put paid to future temptation by Herefordshire officers to humiliate other black people in the area.

Winsome-Grace Cornish