A man was wrongfully arrested twice and held overnight in jail after an emergency dispatcher misspelt his name. The Western Australia Police misspelt the man's name as Mark Smith, whose real name was Marc Smith.
The incident occurred in January 2023 when a man reported to Triple Zero, Australia's national emergency number, that another man was attempting to steal his sailboat.
The alleged offender called emergency services at the same time to inform them that he felt threatened by the boat owner and asked for police help, The New York Post reported.
As a result, authorities mistook the suspect's name for that of another individual who had an ongoing arrest warrant for breach of bail and had nothing to do with the case. They misspelt the name of the suspect, writing it as Mark instead of Marc.
The officers gathered statements from both men, but they neglected to verify the information of the alleged offender. Unaware of his real name and address, they discovered that he owned a public transport SmartRider that did not belong to him.
The individual was arrested on suspicion of having an outstanding warrant, stealing a boat, and possessing a stolen SmartRider.
Officers took him to the police station, scanned his fingerprints, but they did not wait for the ten-minute process to verify if they matched those already in the system.
The man attempted to inform the authorities that his name was misspelt, but they did not verify it, and he was not questioned about any further information.
He was detained overnight without being granted bail. A magistrate discovered the error the next day and had the man's charges dropped. However, three months later, authorities repeated the blunder.
The same man and his caretaker went to the same police station to ask for help. They detained him a second time after he noticed his picture was linked to the other Mark's pending warrant.
The individual informed police that he had been unfairly arrested twice for incorrectly spelling his name and that he was released following further investigation.
The WA Corruption and Crime Commission (WA CCC) condemned the authorities for two erroneous detentions of the same name. They filed a report criticising the police for their wrongdoings due to the repeated mistakes.
The officers involved chose not to take part, and the internal assessment concluded that there was insufficient evidence to accuse them of deprivation of liberty.
