Married at First Sight Australia 2020‘s Stacey Hampton is pursuing legal action after Federal Police raided her home.
Per Adelaide Now, the mother-of-two was woken by Federal Police officers who had a search warrant at around 6:30 am on September 20, 2023.
In documents filed to the Federal Court of Australia, Stacey said the search was related to an Australian Tax Office (ATO) review she is currently undergoing.
The 30-year-old labelled the search an “abuse of power” that left her son, Kosta, eight, “shaken up”.
She also said Kosta and her youngest son Kruz, six (who both have disabilities), were mourning the anniversary of the death of their father, Shane Smith, at the time of the search.
According to Stacey, police searched several of her children’s “private and confidential” medical files. She also claimed they prohibited her from accessing a mobile phone to contact Kosta while he was at school.
“I asked multiple times for a device just in case he runs away as he had gone to school already shaken up by this abrupt (sic) unexpected search,” she said in court documents.
“This was not given and I was not being arrested or charged yet, I was treated in a manner which defies innocent until proven guilty anyway.”
Married at First Sight‘s Stacey Hampton calls police raid an ‘unreasonable exercise of power’
Stacey said she was not aware of any allegations relating to the search warrant prior to the search taking place.
She is not being accused of wrongdoing and has not been charged with any offences.
Per court documents, Stacey receives carer and pension payments from Services Australia for Kruz and is currently working with the ATO on a review regarding the payments.
The former MAFS bride said AFP officers seized a social media “ring light”, two iPhones and an iMac computer during their eight-hour raid.
They also seized “notes of paper which detailed monies NDIS owed me (and) prices of a cake for an event”, according to Stacey.
In documents, she claimed the search was an “unreasonable exercise of power”. As such, she seeks a court order to quash “any investigation or decision” made as a result of the operation.
The case is set to return to court in February 2024.
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