Man who who asked John Key to pay his dinner bill awarded $750 compensation

John Key may be called as a witness in a case against the police surrounding his denial he ever offered to pay for a man's dinner at the Green Parrot

A man who asked then-Prime Minister John Key to pay his dinner bill, has been awarded $750 compensation.

Kent Boyd originally sued the police for $30,000 for unjustified arrest, following the 2012 incident.

Boyd and a friend were eating at the Green Parrot in Wellington in 2012, when they saw Key also dining there with two other people.

It started with a friendly exchange and a request for a photo with Sir John, but police were involved after Boyd asked the Prime Minister to pay for their $82 dinner bill.

Boyd claimed that when he asked Sir John to pay for his dinner, the Prime Minister said "absolutely".

Sir John denied that at the time and has repeated that denial in a sworn statement to the court. He said he responded with "yeah lots of people say that".

When leaving the restaurant, Boyd told Green Parrot staff that Key's table would be paying his bill.

The Crown said a "dispute" arose at the front desk, and eventually a diplomatic protection officer approached to tell them the Prime Minister wasn't paying the bill.

As they were becoming concerned about the disturbance, the officer then took Boyd outside. He was detained and eventually arrested on suspicion of theft of the meal he had eaten.

A charge of breach of bail was added later, as officers suspected Boyd had breached his bail conditions by drinking alcohol.

Police withdrew the charges some days later.

Boyd took his case to the Wellington District Court under a mix of common law and Bill of Rights claims, saying he shouldn't have been arrested, and that the force used to arrest him was excessive.

Fairfax reports Boyd has now been awarded $750 in compensation for the incident.

In the report, Judge Chris Tuohy upheld one of Boyd's three legal claims, that he was unlawfully detained by Constable Gregory Betham.

Fairfax reports that because Betham was not going to arrest Boyd, he didn't have the legal right to detain him.

Boyd was detained by Betham for approximately ten minutes.