AN off-duty Hampshire policewoman took the law into her own hands and falsely arrested a man she believed had beaten up her disabled brother, a court heart.

Pc Claire Scannell, 25, raced round to her brother's house with her fiance, fellow officer Sergeant Abdul Haque, 37, after discovering that the alleged attacker was not being charged, a jury was told.

They then entered the man's house, drove him eight miles to a police station and booked him without telling the custody sergeant that the case had already been dealt with by another officer, it was alleged.

Scannell and Haque, who deny one charge of misconduct in public office, are on trial at Kingston Crown Court, south west London.

The jury was told that the officers' ''disgraceful behaviour'' was triggered when Scannell received a ''slightly hysterical'' call from her father on the day of the incident.

She told officers investigating the alleged assault that her father had told her that her brother Daniel Scannell had been beaten up and ''the police were refusing to do anything about it''.

Daniel Scannell, 23, walks with the aid of a stick and has learning difficulties, the court was told.

But prosecutor Richard Bendall told the jury the altercation amounted to no more than a push by Mr Scannell's neighbour Graham Thompson after they disagreed about parking outside their Havant homes.

Contrary to his father's claims that the police had refused to act, Daniel Scannell had agreed with a police officer, who was called to the scene shortly after the incident, that he did not want to press charges and he signed a page in the officer's notebook agreeing to that, the court heard.

Pc Scannell and Sgt Haque, also of Hampshire Police, contacted Havant Police Station to find out what had happened to Miss Scannell's brother, the court heard.

When a sergeant told Miss Scannell that her brother had agreed that no further action be taken, she told him that he could not do that as he was ''mentally ill'', Mr Bendall told the jury.

She told the officer that she would have to go round to her brother's house and he told her to call him and keep him updated with the situation.

But when Scannell and Haque, in plain clothes, arrived at the house they went straight to Mr Thompson's garden where Mr Haque demanded to know: ''Where's the guy who hits disabled people,'' the court heard.

It was only after some minutes that the officers showed their warrant cards and when Mr Thompson told them that the matter had already been dealt with by the police, Miss Scannell allegedly said: ''I am CID, special.'' Mr Bendall said: ''That was a complete lie, it was in fact a bit of window dressing in the hope that it might explain why they were in plain clothes.'' He added: ''Pc Scannell went in there all guns blazing and arrested Mr Thompson.

''Instead of taking him to the local police station, Havant, they drove him eight miles to Portsmouth Central.'' He told the jury that when booking Mr Thompson in with the custody sergeant Pc Scannell failed to mention that the victim of the alleged attack was her brother or that it had previously been dealt with by another police officer and a decision made not to arrest him.

After Mr Thompson's arrest Daniel Scannell and his partner Sarah Williams, with whom he has two young children, made witness statements at Pc Scannell's home police station in which they described Mr Thompson punching Mr Scannell in the face repeatedly.

This, said Mr Bendall, differed significantly from their earlier statement to the first police officer, when Mr Scannell insisted that he could not remember being hit.

''Both of them had decided deliberately to ham this up and make things more difficult for Mr Thompson,'' Mr Bendall told the court.

Pc Scannell and Sgt Haque, who live together in Portsmouth, both deny one charge of misconduct in public office by conducting an inappropriate and false arrest.

Mr Scannell and Miss Williams both deny one charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Bendall said: ''This was disgraceful behaviour by two police officers who effectively took the law into their own hands where it was obvious that they were too closely connected.''

Proceeding