Retired Army captain Edmund Carlisle, who failed in his bid to sue police for arresting him while his Mid Wales home burned, was been refused leave to appeal.

His claims of negligence and false imprisonment against Dyfed-Powys Police were dismissed and he was ordered to pay 80 per cent of the force’s costs following the trial last August.

Captain Carlisle, 85, said officers had prevented him saving valuable paintings and antiques from his 16th century home. He and his wife Rosemary, 84, lost property worth £500,000 in the fire at Llanigon, near Hay-on-Wye, in 2002.

It was the police case that it was unsafe for them to be inside the building.

Judge Gary Hickinbottom refused him leave to appeal.

Captain Carlisle represented himself at a hearing in Cardiff yesterday, before Lord Justice Richards in his application to appeal.

Among his complaints were the composition and competence of the jury, the number of defence witnesses allowed to give evidence and that the judge had restricted the evidence put before jurors.

In his judgment, Lord Justice Richards said it was “the essence of our legal system” that juries are randomly selected.

He was not persuaded the judge had erred in his discretion of what evidence should go before the jury and there was nothing to show evidence from the defence witnesses was irrelevant.

Captain Carlisle said: “I consider the judge had written his decision long before he came to this hearing.”