A West Australian elder is yet to receive an explanation as to why he was arrested and detained for five days due to fine defaults, despite making regular payments.
Dadawarra Harris was detained over $13,000 in unpaid fines on March 31 for five days.
The arrest came following his testimony in pastor Geoffrey Stokes’ hearing and was held in Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison.
The arrest was declared legally correct by the Goldfields-Esperance Police Acting Superintendent Glen Willers, who said it was in line with new police policy regarding fine defaulters.
Following an inquest into the death in custody of Ms Dhu, who was detained for unpaid fines, Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan declared that fine defaulters would not be held for more than eight hours.
As reported by the ABC, a spokeswoman for the Department of the Attorney-General said the Fines Enforcement registry does not comment on individual cases.
