Toronto police are filing a letter of complaint against the province's Criminal Injuries Compensation Board over a $4,000 settlement awarded to a woman who claims she was assaulted by officers in March 2007.

The board believed Nimo Gulleid's claim that several officers were abusive when they pulled her off a TTC bus in the city's west end. Police had received false reports she had a gun following a heated argument about religion between Gulleid and another passenger.

Gulleid told the board the officers pushed her to the ground and pulled off her hijab, a headscarf worn by Muslim women.

Instead of filing a complaint, Gulleid hired a lawyer to argue the case in front of the CICB, a quasi-judicial adjudicative agency that awards compensation to victims of crimes of violence in the province.

But Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash told CBC News the board never contacted police for more information and never informed police about a hearing for the woman.

"We have some very serious concerns that the CICB didn't seek the information that they should have, that the decision they made is based on one person's account," he said.

"I'm not denying anything that this woman says, but the fact is, until you have all the facts, nobody can reach any conclusion as to what happened."

Pugash said the police force didn't even know there was an issue with the way any of the officers handled Gulleid's arrest.

There was no internal investigation of the matter, but Pugash said he believes the officers acted appropriately.

"You would have thought that they'd contact us to try to get that information," he said. "It doesn't appear that was the case."

Toronto police Chief Bill Blair plans to write a letter to the board's chair and the province's attorney general raising the force's concerns about the board's handling of the case.

Barry Swadron, the lawyer representing Gulleid, said he never filed a formal complaint with police, but they were aware that he was looking into the incident because he had requested and received police records of the incident.

"I think they should know what's going on, certainly, when I was making the freedom of information requests," Swadron told CBC News. "I wasn't planning to go on vacation with the information that they gave me."

Officials from the CICB and the attorney general's office are refusing to comment.