Mother ‘held in police cell for seven hours after confiscating daughters' iPads'

Independent

11-04-2025

A teacher has said she was held in a police cell for seven-and-a-half hours after confiscating two iPads that belonged to her daughters.
In an interview with LBC, Vanessa Brown said she has suffered sleepless nights as a result of the incident on March 26, after a claim that she had stolen the devices.
The 50-year-old said she had confiscated the tablets to encourage her daughters to focus on their schoolwork, which was later accepted by Surrey Police.
Ms Brown said she was taken to Staines police station where she was searched, had fingerprints and custody shots taken before she was held in a cell.
Police also sent officers to her children's school and pulled her daughter out of class regarding the matter, she added.
The force tracked the iPads to Ms Brown's mother's house in Cobham, Surrey.
She told LBC: 'I find it quite traumatic even talking about this now.
'At no point did they [the officers] think to themselves, 'Oh, this is a little bit of an overreaction for a moment, confiscating temporarily her iPads and popping over to her mum's to have a coffee'. It was just a complete overreaction.
'It was thoroughly unprofessional. They were speaking to my mother, who is in her 80s, like she was a criminal.'
Upon her release, Ms Brown's bail conditions meant she was unable to speak to her daughters as they were connected to the investigation while police continued their enquiries.
A spokesperson for Surrey Police told LBC they were originally alerted to the potential theft by a man in his 40s and officers attended a property 'where the occupant was questioned about the iPads and denied any knowledge of their whereabouts'.
They continued: 'However, a tracking device on the iPads showed that they were at the address and a 50-year-old woman from Cobham was arrested on suspicion of theft.
'A search was then carried out using post-arrest powers and the iPads were located.
'The woman was subsequently released on conditional bail while further enquiries were carried out.
'The police bail conditions included not speaking to her daughters, who were connected to the investigation, while officers carried out their enquiries.
'Following these enquiries, officers discovered that the iPads belonged to the woman's children and that she was entitled to confiscate items from her own children.'
Of police's handling of the incident, the mother-of-two said: 'They were able to send a police car with police officers to my children's school, they were able to send another police car or two to arrest me… I know people are making reports of thefts, of assaults and very violent crimes in and around our neighbourhood – and they're not getting a response for days.
'I cannot get to the bottom of why (my arrest) was done in such a quick turnaround – maybe less than an hour.
'All these police cars and police officers going into an address over a completely false report of a theft.'