A history teacher has said she was arrested and blocked from seeing her daughters after she confiscated their iPads.

Vanessa Brown, 50, described her “unspeakable devastation and trauma” after spending seven-and-a-half hours in a cell on 26 March after a claim that she had stolen two iPads.

She was later released with bail conditions that barred her from speaking to anyone connected to the investigation – including her children – until the case was dropped.

Brown told LBC she had taken the iPads to encourage her daughters to focus on their schoolwork. Surrey police tracked the devices to Brown’s mother’s house in Cobham, Surrey, and later accepted the devices belonged to her children and she was “entitled” to confiscate them.

“I find it quite traumatic even talking about this now,” Brown said.

“At no point did [the officers] think to themselves, ‘Oh, this is a little bit of an overreaction for a moment, confiscating temporarily her [own] iPads and popping over to her mum’s to have a coffee’. It was just a complete overreaction.”

She added: “It was thoroughly unprofessional. They were speaking to my mother, who is in her 80s, like she was a criminal.”

Surrey police said a search for the devices began after a man in his 40s reported the theft of two iPads to officers who attended an address in Cobham, following a report of a “concern for safety”.

Ch Supt Aimee Ramm, Surrey police’s northern divisional commander, said: “This led officers to carry out further enquiries at a second address, where a 50-year-old woman from Cobham was questioned about the iPads and denied any knowledge of their whereabouts.

“However, a tracking device on the iPads showed that they were at the address. Officers encouraged the woman to return the items and resolve the matter, however the woman did not cooperate and therefore she was arrested on suspicion of theft. A search was then carried out using post-arrest powers and the iPads were located.

“During this time, officers called South East Coast ambulance to attend the address following a further concern for safety.”

Brown told LBC she was taken to Staines police station, where she was searched and had fingerprints and custody shots taken, before being placed in a cell.

She said she was not able to return to her mother’s home until almost 12 hours after police first arrived, and was left in a “catatonic state” as a result of the experience.

Brown also reported that officers pulled one of her daughters out of a class at school in relation to the matter.

“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 address over a completely false report of a theft.”

Surrey police said Brown was released on conditional bail while further enquiries were carried out to establish the ownership of the iPads.

Ramm said: “The police bail conditions included not speaking to anyone connected to the investigation, including her daughters, while officers carried out their enquiries.

“Following these enquiries, officers were able to verify that the iPads belonged to the woman’s children, and that she was entitled to confiscate these items from her own children. The case was therefore closed the following day with no further action being taken and the bail conditions which had been set were then no longer applicable.

“Officers did attend the daughter’s school – however this was in relation to the initial concern for safety.”