I think that they must have done a vehicle check prior to your cuffing and seen your wife as the registered keeper. Therefore doing their duty and stopping you.
But I disagree in the manner which it was done, but IF it was stolen. Wouldn`t you be grateful to them for carrying out the action in the first place? Just a thought.
Anthony

P.S I`ll be around your way on Sat for the footie. I`ll look out for you at said petrol station

 

Oh dear this does not sound too good!

Not read other replies but I can say that an officer should not handcuff someone to an object when making an arrest or restraining someone. This should be drilled into the officer during training and he should know not to do it! In a high risk enviroment such as a petrol station I would say this is possibly the worst situation to even consider handcuffing someone to an object!!!!

Secondly, the use of the handcuffs should only be done so when its reasonable and necessary. As you were not being aggressive and the officer had already taken your keys and you were still seated in the car I would suggest from the info that you have given so far that the use of the cuffs was neither reasonable nor necessary.

Did the garage have CCTV that might have showed this incident?

I would be going to the station and asking to speak to an inspector about making a complaint of assault.

here is the current ACPO guide lines - print it off and take it with you.

http://www.acpo.police.uk/asp/polici...6_11x10x06.doc

 

you got his badge number, now make the complaint. Really should make the complaint or else the ba$tards will become a law unto themselves

 

Garage CCTV - !!!

perfect. Tell the garage owner about it, he might just turn out to be helpful with providing footage.