Police confuse actors with hooligans

Published: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:35:06

Blundering police officers are to apologise to six actors after mistakenly including them in a group of photos of rioting football fans. The actors all starred in the Nick Love-directed The Firm, a remake of a 1980s film about a football hooligan gang released in September. Sky News used a clip of the movie as background information about hooligan culture during a report about trouble between fans at a West Ham v Millwall match in August.

Police used the Sky News report to identify people they wanted to interview in connection with the disturbances, but did not have the sound on as they captured images. As a result, they were unaware that some of the footage was from a movie and images of the six actors, including The Firm's lead star Paul Anderson, were included in a batch of 66 photos of people thought to have been involved in the real-life violence. A spokesman for Scotland Yard admitted there had been a mix-up and added: "We wish to apologise unreservedly to those affected. We are going to be actively trying to contact those people to offer our apologies."

Have you ever been the victim of mistaken identity?

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