A father-of-three last night won £16,500 compensation after he was attacked by a police dog.

A jury upheld a claim for damages by Lawrence Agar, 35, who said he was set upon by Bosco, a German Shepherd, before being sprayed in the face with CS gas, punched and kicked and thrown into a cell.

Mr Agar and his partner Maxine Pursey, 36, sued the Chief Constable of Cleveland Police for assault, wrongful imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

Mr Agar was awarded £15,000 compensation on all three counts with a further £1,500 in backdated interest payments.

Miss Pursey was awarded £1,250 compensation after it was found she was wrongly imprisoned by police. The jury did not uphold her complaints of assault and malicious prosecution.

Teesside County Court heard that Mr Agar alleged that he was set upon by Bosco after he had been to his local pub, The Grove, on Middlesbrough's Easterside Estate on Boxing Day 1997.

The incident occurred after an angry crowd massed outside the pub.

Drunken revellers were fighting each other and throwing bottles and glasses at police who were trying to quell tempers.

The couple told the court they were walking home past Bosco and his handler, PC Mark Robson, when the dog set upon Mr Agar.

During the struggle, Miss Pursey claimed she was knocked off her feet when a policeman punched her in the chest.

The jury found that Mr Agar had been drunk on the night but had not acted aggressively. They decided that Bosco had been used with unnecessary force against Mr Agar.

But they found that Miss Pursey had interfered with officers as they tried to arrest her partner.

Mr Agar was charged with assault on PC Robson, but the case at Teesside Magistrates' Court collapsed.

Last night, Mr Agar questioned whether Bosco should still be patrolling the streets. He said: "We hope no one else has to go through what we did."

According to police rec-ords, Bosco has sunk his teeth into at least 54 people, during his four years on the force, including four police officers - one of whom was his handler