THE owner of a garage which burned down has threatened to sue Essex Police for wrongful arrest.

Ray Neal, who owned RA Autos, in Commerce Way, Colchester, was arrested in July after the building went up in flames.

The site, on the Whitehall industrial estate, burned for about 20 hours and was tackled by almost 50 firefighters The 57-year-old and a mechanic from a neighbouring garage were treated for smoke inhalation, and firefighter Ian Parkes was kept in hospital for three days after being hit by debris.

Mr Neal was originally arrested on suspicion of arson, and released on police bail until Wednesday.

Police at Colchester have now released Mr Neal from his bail, and announced they will be taking no action against him.

He reacted angrily to the arrest and later treatment.

He fumed: “I am absolutely, totally disgusted. I turned up to answer bail and the officer involved was off sick. No one knew what was going on. They wanted to rebail me for another month, but I said I wasn’t going to accept that.

“I had a confrontation with them because I wasn’t going anywhere unless they rescinded everything, because they knew I hadn’t caused the fire.”

He continued: “I have not had any apologies. I’m going to sue for wrongful arrest.”

In fact, Mr Neal believes the fire, which cost him £500,000 to £750,000, was caused by BT workmen cutting through some electricity cables.

He said: “I went to BT’s offices to speak to someone, and once again no one knew who should deal with it. It was going round in circles. I threatened to block every car park for BT with scrapped cars and eventually got some attention.”

He is now in talks with BT’s legal department over whether the company is to blame.

Heather Watts, from Essex Police, said: “Essex Police has not received any complaint or notification of legal action.”