The Mancunian Way: Alice in Afflecks

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Keep up to date with all the big stories from across Greater Manchester in the daily Mancunian Way newsletter. You can receive the newsletter direct to your inbox every weekday by signing up right here. Here's the Mancunian Way for today: Hello, The police officer who mistakenly pulled over former Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West Nazir Afzal must have got quite a shock.

But not half as much of a shock as Mr Afzal himself whose tyres were flattened with a police stinger thanks to what appears to be an admin error.

The lawyer - who is chancellor at the University of Manchester - was wrongly targeted in a bungled hunt for a stolen car. He says 'serious conversations' need to happen.

Mr Afzal was driving his son home when he noticed a flashing light behind him at around 11.30pm on Sunday. Before he was able to stop he saw something 'fly' in front of his car and deflate all his tyres. "I didn't know what was going on," he told reporter Nicole Wootton-Cane. "The car stopped, and I realised there was an unmarked police car in front of us and another police car behind us." Mr Afzal told his 23-year-old son to keep his hands visible and stay in the car, but when officers approached the vehicle one immediately said: “I know who you are.” "They obviously worked out quite quickly that this wasn't a stolen vehicle, and also who was driving it." Officers told Mr Afzal that a vehicle with a similar number plate had been reported as stolen in the West Midlands but that one of the digits had been entered incorrectly - leading to Mr Afzal's car becoming a police target.