Wendy Carlisle: A class action in the New South Wales Supreme Court will look at whether police have wrongfully arrested and locked up a large number of young people because of a problem with the police computer system.

Tara El-Masri: Every time I was falsely incarcerated it was not ask me a question, it was, 'You're under arrest,' handcuffs straight away.

Wendy Carlisle: The arrests occurred because the police computer was not updating bail information from the courts. The stories that Background Briefing heard in the making of this program have a recurring theme; police harassment and apparent indifference to the impact of these wrongful arrests. And it has left a big group of young people furious and resentful of the police.

Tara El-Masri: I was very, very angry. I'm starving, I'm freezing, I haven't done nothing wrong, they are treating me like I'm a dog. Yes, I'm going to Juniperina, I'm going to get strip-searched, then I'm wasting my whole day the next day because I'm stuck in the court cells until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. So I wasn't incarcerated for just one day, it was literally two.

Wendy Carlisle: Many young people were repeatedly arrested and detained. Some as young as 13 found themselves cuffed and carted off in the middle of the night.

Reginald Simpson: There was at least three or four of them there and I asked could I grab my belongings and they just grabbed my hands and said, 'No, you can wait.'

Wendy Carlisle: Hello, and welcome to Background Briefing, I'm Wendy Carlisle. This week we're following the stories of teens who found themselves inside a police cell for the crime of being young and troublesome and from the wrong side of the tracks. The problems with the police computer system date back at least seven years. In 2010 $55 million was spent trying to fix the software problems which prevented data from the courts being uploaded into the system known as COPS or the Computer Operational Police System. But the problems weren't solved, and senior police would later warn that these problems exposed the force to significant civil claims, and police would be found wanting in the execution of their duty.

At the same time, the New South Wales ombudsman found that in a town in the north of the state, police had unlawfully arrested three Aboriginal youth within two weeks. 30 young people are currently signed up to the class action which was brought by the legal firm Maurice Blackburn and lawyers at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre or PIAC. PIAC's CEO Ed Santow says the real numbers have yet to be uncovered.

Edward Santow: We've got pretty solid information that it's happening to literally or it has happened to literally hundreds of people.

Wendy Carlisle: Those young people in the frame were, for want of a better description, the usual suspects.

Edward Santow: Around a third of the young people involved in the class action identify as Aboriginal, and a really significant proportion of the young people in the class are from non-English-speaking backgrounds. This problem tends not to affect your average middle-class kid.

Wendy Carlisle: Their offences were relatively minor and non-custodial, but because of the publication restrictions under the Children's Criminal Proceedings Act in New South Wales, Background Briefing is not permitted to name the offences that these individuals committed.

Ed Santow says the police response has been entirely out of proportion.

Edward Santow: If you look at the lead applicant in our class action, the original offence that he was charged with was riding on a train without a ticket. Ultimately he was then detained for breach of bail associated with that original offence. Now, you are never going to be detained for any length of time for simply riding on the train without a ticket.

Wendy Carlisle: For fare evasion.

Edward Santow: Yes, exactly. So there's a complete lack of proportion between what the underlying offence was alleged to be and I guess the approach taken by the police in enforcing bail conditions. And that's what we think is totally out of whack.

Wendy Carlisle: One such story is that of 13-year-old Reginald Simpson, an Aboriginal boy from Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. The recording you are about to hear is of Reginald Simpson being interviewed by his lawyers, and he has given his consent for it to be broadcast. In 2007 he went to visit his aunty in Cowra, and one night the police turned up looking for him and he hid under the bed. Police said he wasn't allowed to leave Wagga and that he had breached his bail.

Reginald Simpson: All of a sudden there was a bang at the door and then my Aunty Narelle, she told them that I was there, so she told me to get out from under the bed, which I did, and I walked to the door, and there was at least three or four of them there, and I asked could I grab my belongings and they just grabbed my hands and said, 'No, you can wait.'

Lawyer: Did they tell you why they were arresting you?

Reginald Simpson: I think they just said for breach of bail. Before they tried to put the handcuffs on me I asked could I get my belongings and they said no.

Lawyer: Did you tell them what your belongings were?

Reginald Simpson: Yes, I said my shirt, my puffer and my shoes.

Lawyer: And why didn't they let you get your stuff?

Reginald Simpson: I'm really not sure.

Regina Simpson: He's got very bad asthma, he has.

Lawyer: How did that make you feel?

Reginald Simpson: Scared, knowing that they won't let me have my puffer.

Lawyer: So when you got to Cowra where you still asking for your puffer and your shoes?

Reginald Simpson: Yes.

Lawyer: And what were they saying?

Reginald Simpson: They were just saying, 'You'll have to wait and we'll have to try to get on to someone…'

Wendy Carlisle: The police picked up Reginald Simpson, handcuffed him and put him in the paddy wagon and drove him to the Orange Police Station, another hour away. His mother was worried; he had few clothes, he was asthmatic, and he didn't have his puffer with him. The next morning his mother Regina called the Orange Police to find out where Reginald was.

Regina Simpson: I was talking to a police, she was a woman copper, and I asked, 'Can I speak to Reginald Simpson?' And she said, 'There's no one by the name of that here. I said, 'Look, he is only a kid, he's only 13.' And she went out the back and had a look and he was there.

Wendy Carlisle: At the time of his arrest, Reginald Simpson was on bail but he wasn't in breach of it. The COPS system had not recorded his changes.

A year later, 17-year-old Tara El-Masri was arrested and locked up at Revesby in Sydney. She was not on bail at the time. Again, this is an interview recorded with her lawyers and broadcast with her consent.

Tara El-Masri: Walking down the street, and then I was coming…the police were coming down this road and I'm on the other side, so they can see my face, so they automatically do a U-turn, they pull me over and then they jump out of the car. It's not even a question, it's, 'You're under arrest for breach of bail,' because they think I'm on bail. They do a CNI check it says, yes, she is on bail.

Wendy Carlisle: CNI stands for Central Names Index, which is in the COPS police database. It's the bible that police rely on for information on suspects.

Tara El-Masri: Like, I'm telling them, 'I'm not on bail, I swear,' I'm promising black and blue I'm not on bail. They're saying to me I'm lying, they say I'm under arrest. I go back to the police station, and I tell them, 'Can you please ring my mum because my mum has got the papers to prove that I'm not on bail.'

Wendy Carlisle: The police went around to see Tara's mother, Cheryl El-Masri.

Cheryl El-Masri: Yep, I remember that night so clearly. Three officers I think it was turned up at my door, I presented them with the bail papers, they looked at them, they looked at the date on the stamp, they looked at her bail conditions, they could see that the bail had been changed.

Wendy Carlisle: The police weren't persuaded.

Cheryl El-Masri: I was pointing out to them, how can she have breached it when it's not on here? How could she have breached it? It has been dealt with, it's been changed.

Wendy Carlisle: And what did they say to you when you pointed that out?

Cheryl El-Masri: They did not want to accept it.

Wendy Carlisle: What did they say though?

Cheryl El-Masri: Nothing, they just looked at it and said no, unacceptable.

Wendy Carlisle: 'Unacceptable'? What did that mean?

Cheryl El-Masri: To me it meant that a court document meant nothing to these police.

Wendy Carlisle: Tara spent the night in juvenile detention.

Cheryl El-Masri: What could I do? Really, what could I do? I had to show up at court the next day, and then it just happened all over again.

Wendy Carlisle: What do you mean?

Cheryl El-Masri: They provoked Tara, she got into trouble for swearing, and I'd be at court the next day because she'd been charged with…[phone rings]…hello?

Wendy Carlisle: Our interview had been interrupted by a phone call. Cheryl was about to tell me about another time that Tara was wrongfully arrested. On that occasion, Tara saw the police approach her while she was at the train station. She knew trouble was coming. She swore at the police and was cuffed and arrested for breach of bail. Cheryl picks up the thread:

Cheryl El-Masri: Tara always getting into trouble, she was a naughty girl. I mean, which kid can't be when they get around with the wrong kids, you know? When it came to the arrest for swearing and things like that, she was always provoked into it.

Wendy Carlisle: The way Tara remembers it, the police provoked her at the train station.

Tara El-Masri: I was on the train station and they come up to me and they're, like, 'You're under arrest.' And I'm saying to him, 'Uh-uh, I'm not under arrest, I'm not on bail.' And he's, like, 'Yes, you are.' And I'm saying, 'No, I'm fuckin not.' They're, like to me…you know what I mean, I'm arguing with them.

Lawyer: Right, so they approached you about the breach of bail…

Tara El-Masri: Yes, but it's not like they approached me, they just said, 'Ay, you're under arrest.'

Lawyer: And that's when the swearing occurred.

Tara El-Masri: Yes, and I'm saying, 'I'm not fucking under arrest, believe me,' you know what I mean. They're not going to believe you.

Lawyer: And you were swearing at him.

Tara El-Masri: I'm not swearing, I'm just saying, 'Look man, I'm not fucking on bail,' and I just kept saying 'fuckin', 'fuckin'…

Lawyer: Yes, protesting.

Tara El-Masri: Yes, like I'm protesting my rights. And every time I was falsely incarcerated it was not asking me a question, it was, 'You're under arrest,' handcuffed, straight away.

Wendy Carlisle: According to Tara's lawyers, this was the second of her unlawful arrests. The way Tara's mother Cheryl sees it, there's a kind of trench warfare between the police and the kids on the street. Cheryl says she has heard on other occasions the way the police speak to her daughter.

Cheryl El-Masri: You know, just things like, 'Why don't you just shut the fuck up and go home,' or…you know, she could be walking down the street here today and a police officer will be sitting out the front, maybe because we have problems in the area, and they will say to her, like they did quite a few months ago, 'Why don't you go back to Canterbury Road where you belong?'

Wendy Carlisle: The night police wrongfully arrested Tara she was taken in a police paddy wagon to the police station, and at 1am was transported to the juvenile detention centre.

Tara El-Masri: And it's freezing, they've got the air con on, it's 1:30 in the morning, you've got shorts on, it's freezing.

Lawyer: What were you wearing?

Tara El-Masri: Like shorts and a shirt, and you're not allowed your shoes on, they take your shoes off in case you try and commit suicide. So now I'm freezing, like literally purple when you get out, because they put the air con on as well.

Tara’s friend: To give you fresh air, you know, through the back, yes.

Lawyer: Did you have a blanket?

Tara El-Masri: No.

Lawyer: Did you ask them? Did you tell them you were cold?

Tara El-Masri: Yes. They don't care.

Wendy Carlisle: By the time that the court found that Tara El-Masri wasn't on bail and was allowed to go, it was 4pm.

Tara El-Masri: I wish the cops that arrested me said sorry, because they made me feel like a gronk, like a big liar…

Lawyer: What's a gronk?

Tara El-Masri: Like…a gronk is like a dickhead…

Lawyer: I've never heard that before.

Tara El-Masri: They made me feel like an idiot, man, like in front of everyone, making me look like a bad person when I haven't even done anything wrong.

Lawyer: Who was there? Who witnessed you being arrested?

Tara El-Masri: The whole public.

Wendy Carlisle: By around 2009, more cases like Tara's were coming to the attention of the lawyers at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. PIAC took a number of individual cases to court, and won damages on the basis of wrongful arrest and detention. As PIAC's CEO Ed Santow points out, a theme was emerging.

Edward Santow: The typical situation is something like this; you have a young person who is arrested for some kind of offence, usually a fairly minor offence. They will be given bail, and there may be a condition attached to that bail, and then that condition will expire over time. And that condition might be, you know, the particular individual is not allowed out in public after 8 o'clock in the evening.

Wendy Carlisle: So, a curfew?

Edward Santow: A curfew, exactly. That kid will be out at 9 o'clock in the evening, a police officer will see him or her and will say, 'You're in breach of your bail condition.' The young person will dispute this but the police officer will say, 'No, our IT records are being really, really clear on this, we have to arrest you.' And they will be detained until they can be brought before a court, and that can sometimes be overnight. Now, if you're a young person, any age, but especially if you are a young person, this can be the defining experience of your life in the worst possible way.

Wendy Carlisle: New South Wales police have declined to be interviewed by Background Briefing, citing legal reasons. We've also asked the police how many young people have been arrested and detained wrongfully. Police have declined to provide that information, again citing legal reasons.

Ed Santow hasn't had much luck either. According to his enquiries, the police say they don't collect that information.

Edward Santow: One would hope that the records that are kept by the police and the court system would be transparent and really accurate, but what we found so far is that it has been very, very hard to get a really accurate picture of the scope of the problem from those official sources.

Wendy Carlisle: One of the most incredible stories belongs to Einpwy Amom, who came to Australia as a refugee from war-torn Sudan with his mother and two siblings. In March 2010 Einpwy was just 14. One of the conditions originally attached to his bail had been a curfew, but it had been lifted and he was no longer on bail. And so Einpwy was hanging out with his friends near Blacktown railway station.

Einpwy Amom: I was at Blacktown with my cousins and that, chilling, just having a good time, kicking back, because I've got no curfew no more because I went to court the day before that, and I was just happy. My cousins say, you know, you're lucky…

Wendy Carlisle: Because you had your curfew lifted?

Einpwy Amom: Yes, no more curfew. And then from there I was kicking back for at least an hour or two. I went to the new 7-Eleven near the taxi rank, and then the next minute I seen a detective.

Wendy Carlisle: The detective asked Einpwy if he was on a curfew, and Einpwy said no. The detective left, and then some time later more police arrived.

Einpwy Amom: They came up to me and they were, like, 'Einpwy, you have any curfew?' And I was like, 'Nah.' And the detective just came and talked to me and that, and then from that they were like, 'All right, we're just going to do a quick check.' I was, like, 'Yes sure.' 'But you've got to come to the police station.' So I went to the police station, and then from there they tapped out my name, I gave them my name and my address, everything, and then from there he checked it, and then in the computer it says you've got curfew. And I was like, 'No, I don't,' and he was like, 'Yeah, you do.' I was angry but I was like, all right, whatever. He was, like, 'You have to go downstairs now.'

Wendy Carlisle: Einpwy was sent downstairs to the police cell, and from there he was transferred to a juvenile detention centre overnight. His mother Ashol had no idea where her son was. The next morning Einpwy was brought before the court, and the judge said, 'What are you doing here?'

Einpwy Amom: I got out the next day because when the judge, she was like, 'You don't have curfew, why are you here?' I was like, 'That's what I said to the same police officers.' They were like, 'All right,' and then I got out.

Wendy Carlisle: Six days later Einpwy was back hanging out with his friends.

Einpwy Amom: I was kicking back near the taxi rank again, the same police officer, one of them that was there that arrested me, he is like, 'Einpwy what are you doing? You got curfew.' And I was like, 'No I don't.' And they were like, 'Yeah, you do,' and then boom, they arrested me again.

Wendy Carlisle: Einpwy was taken back to the police station, charged and transferred to Cobham Juvenile Detention Centre overnight, and then brought before the court the next day.

Einpwy Amom: But this time when I went to court the judge was a lady, she was like, 'Why are you here? We're sorry about what happened, you shouldn't even be here.' She even said sorry, and I was like, 'Nah, it's all right Your Honour.'

Wendy Carlisle: One week later Einpwy was back at his usual hangout, and he saw a police officer approach him.

Einpwy Amom: And it was the same guy too, the same guy three times.

Wendy Carlisle: The same police officer?

Einpwy Amom: Yes, one of them, three times I've seen him. And then from there he was like, 'Einpwy, what are you doing?' I was, like, fuck man, you know, I was angry. And then I knew the same routine, what they were going to do, and then boom, they handcuffed me, went to the police station, they searched me at the cells, and then I went to Cobham again.

Wendy Carlisle: This was the third time Einpwy Amom had been arrested in less than two weeks. His mother Ashol was at her wits end, trying to understand why the police were repeatedly arresting and locking up her son.

Ashol Amom: Why he has arrest my son, but nobody can explain to me. And he asked the police, 'Why are you arresting me?' The police say, 'You are in the system, you have a bail.'

Wendy Carlisle: When Background Briefing went to talk to Ashol, we were accompanied by her lawyer Michelle Cohen, a senior solicitor from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. At the time of Einpwy's arrest, PIAC and the law firm Maurice Blackburn were gathering cases for their class action. The children's legal service referred Einpwy to PIAC and it was then that Michelle Cohen spoke to Ashol.

Ashol Amom: I want to complain about that case, but I'm looking for somebody to help me. I say I can't leave him like that. And when Michelle, she called me, I'm very, very happy. When she talk she say, I want to help, I want to go to help you because Einpwy arrested for that and that, and I say, yes, it's very, very good I've got somebody to talk to me about that.

Wendy Carlisle: Michelle Cohen had the job of explaining to Ashol how this terrible mistake had happened.

Michelle Cohen: It's really difficult to say how. It's because the computer systems are out of date, and even though they wrongly arrested him the first time, they didn't think to correct the problem for the second and third time, so it kept on happening. So the incorrect information kept on sticking on the computer system.

Wendy Carlisle: The most difficult part to understand was how the same officers could repeatedly arrest Einpwy.

Michelle Cohen: That two of the times that he was arrested he knew the police officer, the same police officer both times. So that police officer should have been on notice from the first time when he was wrongly arrested that it was wrong and that he did the wrong thing. And the second time when it happened he should have known that Einpwy wasn't on bail or should have done some serious checks, because he knew what had happened previously.

Wendy Carlisle: Einpwy's repeated wrongful arrests have had a profound impact on the family.

Ashol Amom: I feel like I'm not in a safe place. And when the police hate the people, how can you stay and who can help you?

Wendy Carlisle: Do you think it's got anything to do with race and colour?

Ashol Amom: Yes, I think about that, I say the police did that for my son because we are a black people. If I'm not a black people he cannot do the kids like that.

Wendy Carlisle: You really believe that?

Ashol Amom: Yes, I believe that.

Wendy Carlisle: And what makes you believe that?

Ashol Amom: Because the way the police talk with the children, not just my son. I see a lot of young people, black people in Blacktown, the police, other police, I know him, the two police doesn't like black people, all the time shouting with the children in the front of Westpoint Shopping Centre.

Wendy Carlisle: What sorts of things do the police say to the black kids? What do they say, what sort of things, what language do they use? Do they call them names or…does Einpwy come home and tell you that?

Ashol Amom: He didn't tell me but I listen sometimes, he says, 'Oh fuckin black people,' and a lot of bad words, no good.

Wendy Carlisle: Einpwy Amom's case is one of the strongest in the class action. Compensation has yet to be determined. But Einpwy is not focused so much on money. He wants the public to know what happened.

Einpwy Amom: So like people can see what the police are doing, the wrong thing and that. But this will show the people in public that they do stuff up and that, you know.

Wendy Carlisle: And what do you hope to get out of it yourself?

Einpwy Amom: Just pride, just for black people pride so they can see not all of us are bad, that's what I just want, I just want respect, that's the main thing.

Wendy Carlisle: Two months after Einpwy's nightmare, senior New South Wales police were expressing alarm about the long-standing problem with the COPS computer. The software was over 20 years old, and $55 million have been poured into an upgrade, but it still wasn't working and there was user error as well. It wasn't just bail information that was unreliable but AVOs, fines, court orders, and warrants. In May 2010 Chief Superintendent of Police Prosecutions Tony Trichter endorsed a scathing email to his commanders which warned that this issue went to the very core of how the state's 16,000 police did their job. The emails were released under Freedom of Information to Fairfax media.

Email excerpt: Obviously this represents an enormous corporate risk where we will be confronted by claims for unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution.

Wendy Carlisle: 12 months later, the computers strike again. 17-year-old Billal El Chahrouk was picked up by police while he was walking down a Sydney street after 8 o'clock. He was on his way to his girlfriend's house. Background Briefing has obtained recordings of the original interviews PIAC lawyers conducted with Billal. Billal El Chahrouk has given his consent for these to be broadcast.

Billal El Chahrouk: They walked over to the window, they knocked on the window and they told me to jump out of the car. I'm like, 'Why do you want me to jump out of the car for, what have I done?' I was joking, I was having a laugh. And then they said, 'You've breached your bail, you've breached your curfew, you have an 8 o'clock curfew.' I was arguing with them, 'What curfew? I don't have a curfew.'

Wendy Carlisle: The police checked the system and it said that Billal El Chahrouk was under a curfew. Billal El Chahrouk explains that the Ryde police had picked him up for the same thing the previous week and then they had realised their mistake.

Billal El Chahrouk: 'Why are you doing this for? Call up Ryde police, you can confirm it with them.' I just kept arguing with them, 'I don't have a curfew, don't have a curfew. This same thing happened.' I was telling them, 'I've got a job, I just started a new job, this can't happen.' They said they don't care.

Wendy Carlisle: Billal El Chahrouk had just started a new job, and when he got to Cabramatta Police Station they put him in the cells and then transferred him to the Reiby Juvenile Justice Centre overnight. This was the first time Billal El Chahrouk had ever been placed in detention.

Lawyer: So you got to Reiby. Do you remember what happened when you got to Reiby? Usually they do some kind of check-in procedure.

Billal El Chahrouk Yes, one of the guys, he searched me, one of the guys there, and I explained to him what happened…

Lawyer: This was one of the corrections officers?

Billal El Chahrouk Yes, and he goes, 'It's bullshit, they've been doing it to a lot of other people as well, you're not the first.'

Lawyer: Really?

Billal El Chahrouk Yeah.

Wendy Carlisle: Next morning after a sleepless night, Billal El Chahrouk was taking to Parramatta Children's Court.

Lawyer: And what did the judge say?

Billal El Chahrouk He said that…he printed off this piece of paper for me and said, 'Next time the police pull you up and they say that you have a curfew, you give them this paper.' It was a paper that said…it was a court paper that said the curfew got deleted from the system this time.

Lawyer: So he was 100% sure that you didn't have a curfew? He was just like, 'Take this piece of paper with you, this is…'

Billal El Chahrouk: Yep.

Lawyer: Was he apologetic? What was his attitude?

Billal El Chahrouk : It was nice, he was apologetic, yeah. He was talking about how ridiculous the police system is…

Lawyer: Oh really?

Billal El Chahrouk : He was saying there had been stuff ups in the past with it.

Wendy Carlisle: The judge found that Billal El Chahrouk had not breached his bail.

Billal El Chahrouk : I had to wait until 12:30 or 1 o'clock or something, and then my mum was outside the court, and then I went outside, I called my boss and he said, 'Don't worry about coming in.' I said, 'Can I explain?' He said, 'You don't have to explain anything, don't worry about coming.'

Wendy Carlisle: Billal El Chahrouk had been sacked.

Lawyer: And was this your first week at the job?

Billal El Chahrouk : It was my first week at the job, yes, that was probably my third or fourth day.

Lawyer: What kind of job was that? That was the tiling?

Billal El Chahrouk : That was the tiling, yes.

Lawyer: And you liked that job?

Billal El Chahrouk : It was a good job. I liked that job, I really liked that job. People I was working with were good. The worksite, it was like a fun atmosphere. It's a worksite, it's not the best place, but it was a good atmosphere, I liked it. And then I lost the job, and I was having arguments with my girlfriend, and everything just came down at once after that, and fuck it, I just felt like shit, I just…

Wendy Carlisle: As more cases like Billal El Chahrouk's came through PIAC's doors, the lawyers decided to take a different tack. Individual prosecutions weren't fixing the problem. In 2011 PIAC and lawyers Maurice Blackburn launched their class action in the New South Wales Supreme Court.

Edward Santow: We are bringing the class action because we've tried every other available option. So we have…as I said, we became aware of this problem many years ago. We've made a whole series of representations to both the former Labor state government and the current coalition state government to try and get a systemic solution to the problem. We assisted a number of young people individually to process their claims against the state, and the vast majority of those were very successful. But we just didn't see a systemic solution to the systemic problem.

Wendy Carlisle: You saw it repeat itself.

Edward Santow: Absolutely. And so the last opportunity to assist all the young people who continue to be affected by it but also to send the message that this is completely unacceptable is to have this class action. So we would much prefer not to be running the class action, we would much prefer to reach some kind of informal settlement with the government. We have no desire to rack up legal costs for ourselves or for the state, but we haven't been able to achieve that systemic solution, so this is all that's left.

Wendy Carlisle: The consequences of wrongful arrest on already disaffected youth are obvious.

Edward Santow: The direct impact on that would be massive, but the indirect impact in terms of your fear of the police, your distrust of the police and perhaps other authority figures is really, really corrosive and dangerous.

Wendy Carlisle: Another case came to PIAC's attention, that of 15-year-old Sammy Sarraf. His bail conditions were that he attend school or TAFE, but then they were changed, allowing him instead to look for a job. Sammy's mother Katiana can't forget the day Sammy was arrested.

Katiana Sarraf: That day that he was falsely arrested, he was shocked, let alone…you know, they dragged him all the way in front of everybody handcuffed. I was devastated, I was really horrified.

Wendy Carlisle: It was May 2010, and Sammy was making his way to the job centre.

So Sammy, take me through what happened on that morning?

Sammy Sarraf: I was actually walking along here and I've seen an officer walk out of the Children's Court and he came up to me and asked me what I was up to. He was going to check on the radio to see if I had any warrants.

Wendy Carlisle: Did he ask you if you were in trouble or anything like that?

Sammy Sarraf: No, he asked me if I had any warrants out, and I told him I didn't. He has then told me he is going to conduct a CNI to make sure, and as he's done that he's asked me why I'm not at school or TAFE, and I then explained to him that the bail condition was actually changed a couple of months ago. He told me that on his system it still says that I still have to attend school or TAFE. He then told me that I'm under arrest and going to be taken back to the Parramatta Police Station.

Wendy Carlisle: Sammy's mother Katiana tried to explain to the police that Sammy's bail had been changed.

Katiana Sarraf: He was saying to the sergeant, 'I did not do nothing wrong, I did not breach,' and no one would listen to him, no one. I even went there and I told them because I had to go because he was a minor then, he was under 18, so I was there through each and every step of what's happening, and they wouldn't listen. They insisted, no, he did do something wrong, he should be under arrest.

Wendy Carlisle: At the police station, Sammy was searched.

Sammy Sarraf: Yes, I was then walked then taken into the fish tank and I was searched again.

Wendy Carlisle: So you were strip-searched, were you?

Sammy Sarraf: Yes, not completely, I still had some undies…they didn't take my undies off, they only took my shoes, my pants and my shirt off, and my socks. And then they've taken me back into the fish tank. And from there I wasn't even advised to contact a lawyer, I just really wanted to speak to my mum, and after I told my mum that, well, she sort of flipped out…

Wendy Carlisle: You did?

Sammy Sarraf: Yeah, me and my mum really. I tried to explain to her that I didn't think I did anything wrong…

Katiana Sarraf: He's telling me, 'Mum, I did not do nothing wrong, I'm not on bail for what they've got me, they've falsely arrested me.' And I'm saying to the sergeant, 'Please Sergeant, have a look.'

Wendy Carlisle: None of their pleadings had any effect. Sammy was brought before the court and the judge confirmed what Sammy and Katiana had been saying all along. His bail had been changed, he was allowed to look for work instead of attending school. But it wasn't over yet. Sammy was taken back down into the holding cells. It took the police five long hours to fix the paperwork, and Sammy wondered whether he was going to be freed at all.

Sammy Sarraf: Yes, actually it was crossing through my mind if they were going to release me or not because it did hit around 5:45, usually everyone is out by them, but I was actually the last person to leave. Yeah, I was quite scared of what was going to happen, yeah.

Wendy Carlisle: What did you think was going to happen? What were you scared of?

Sammy Sarraf: If they wanted to keep me and send me back to Cobham or to a juvenile justice centre.

Wendy Carlisle: New South Wales police have told Background Briefing that the computer system has now been fixed, and as of last weekend it is 'seamlessly updating information from the courts'. But Sammy's mother is reeling from the effect that a long-standing computer error has had on her son.

Katiana Sarraf: Oh wow, I was shocked. How can that be? How can that be? Why not, why isn't it updated? I'd like to know. As a mum, I'd like to know, why isn't that updated? No one is entitled to come and take someone and put them in a cell there and just leave them there. It's cruel, very cruel.

Wendy Carlisle: Background Briefing's coordinating producer is Linda McGinness, research by Anna Whitfeld, technical production by Leila Shunnar, the executive producer is Chris Bullock, and I'm Wendy Carlisle.