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A BLACK teenager and his father have attacked claims by Northwich police that their force is not racist.

Ben Kershaw, an 18-year-old student from Hartford, says his car has been stopped by local police 20 times in just four months.

"I've been stopped in daylight and at night," said Ben. "I can't see that I can be confused with someone else - because I don't know anyone else in Northwich who is black."

Ben is the adopted son of a local businessman, Tony Kershaw.

Tony contacted us after reading an interview in last week's Guardian with Inspector Peter Hulse, Northwich's race relations officer. In that story, Mr Hulse said racism would not be tolerated, either in the community, or in the police force.

But Tony doesn't think the police are upholding that pledge.

He added: "I am sure that it is not all the officers, probably not even most of them. But Ben has not been continually pulled over by the same officer, so the problem is deeper than one bad apple."

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