A young single mum was arrested by police and held overnight in the cells after being charged with parking on zig-zag lines.
Samantha Gow, 29, of Dundee, spent 12 hours in the cells before appearing from custody in the city’s Justice of the Peace court after police told her to hand herself in.
However, she was admonished by the JP after the prosecutor apologised to the court for having the traumatised woman appear from custody.
Describing the experience as “just awful, so frightening”, she said she couldn’t understand why she was handcuffed three times in total, even in the cell area, for such a minor motoring offence.
She said: “The policeman at the desk even said to me that it wasn’t his finest hour having to book me.”
The mum of two told The Courier police had swooped on her car seconds after she went into a chip shop on Hilltown, leaving her hungry young children in the car outside and just hours after she had been evicted from her home.
She said: “I had to hand myself in they said or they would come to the door and arrest me.”
Samantha handed herself in in the early hours of Friday, thinking she would be processed and released and told to appear at court at a later date. But she was shocked when she was placed in handcuffs and taken to the cells.
She said on the day of the parking offence she had decided on the spur of the moment to stop her car and get chips for her hungry children, a boy aged three and her daughter aged nine.
She said: “It was a terrible time. I was getting evicted the same day and it wasn’t like I didn’t have enough to deal with.
“The kids were in the back of the car and were hungry, so I just parked near the chipper. I wasn’t even right on the zig-zags, just half on and half off.
“I left the kids in the car with my mum but the police were there in seconds and just booked me. It was half seven at night so it’s not even as though there was a lot of traffic about.
“When I was in the cells I was still in handcuffs. Where did they think I was going to go?
“It’s all just corridors and locked doors. When I got to the court the judge said it was punishment enough.”
When she appeared on Friday before Justice Les Livingstone, the prosecutor in court apologised to him and to Ms Gow for having her appear from custody and asked the justice not to punish her.
Depute fiscal James Eodonable told the court police had executed a warrant previously granted when she failed to appear at an earlier hearing.
He said that while Ms Gow had pleaded guilty to the offence of parking on zig-zag lines, he was suggesting to the JP that, given she was a young woman with no previous history of offending, a simple admonition would suffice in this case.
Solicitor Anne Duffy, who appeared for Ms Gow, said given the fiscal’s plea to the justice, she did not require to submit a plea in mitigation and asked that the JP follow the suggestion given by Mr Eodonable.
Mr Livingstone did so, telling Samantha that the period spent in custody was punishment enough.
A court source said: “This was appalling, the fact that this young woman with young children was taken into custody, when it’s not even an endorseable offence for parking on zig-zag lines.”
The source said Crown guidelines suggested where a warrant is issued in the case of a non-imprisonable offence, police do not have to execute the warrant by taking an accused person into custody.
However, a police spokesman denied they had such discretion and said they do not have the powers to refuse to execute a warrant.