A businessman claims being arrested for harassment has cost him thousands of pounds and forced him to close his businesses.

Garry Field was arrested in June last year for breaching a harassment notice served on him after he made text messages and calls to a woman.

When the case went to trial earlier this year, Mr Field of Town Road, Cliffe Woods, was acquitted and the charge of harassment without violence was dismissed.

The court felt lack of telephone records cast significant doubts over whether the contact was indeed one way, rather than mutual.

Despite being asked to, police failed to provide the defence with full telephone records and logs of phone calls from Mr Field to the police, informing them that the woman had made contact with him.

Mr Field, 43, was arrested on June 11, 2014, and spent seven weeks in Elmley Prison, Isle of Sheppey.

He ran a variety of building and maintenance companies which had contracts with housing associations and councils, as well as a debt recovery company and a bathroom showroom. They all operated under the name Garry Field Ltd.

But he said during this time he was not able to file his tax return, leading to a fine from the Inland Revenue, or pay his staff.

His businesses also lost contracts and was forced to close.

Mr Field said the ordeal has left him depressed: “Sometimes you want to go to sleep at night and you hope you don’t get up again.

“I’d rather be living in a nightmare than in this. There just seems that there’s no way out.”

Mr Field submitted an official complaint to Kent Police which was not upheld.

"Sometimes you want to go to sleep at night and you hope you don’t get up again. I’d rather be living in a nightmare than in this"

However, a report from the force’s professional standards department said it found mistakes had been made due to an officer’s lack of experience and knowledge.

The report said the officer felt overwhelmed when giving evidence and admitted failing to ask a supervisor for help.

The report recommended that officers of the Local District Policing Team should receive training on these matters.

A police spokesman said: “We have reviewed the complaint received in February 2015 and issued our findings to the complainant.

“The complainant has a right to appeal the outcome of any investigation to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.”

The IPCC said it is now looking into Mr Field’s complaint.