Whakatane Police is discrediting claims accusing them of child abuse and negligence.

The claims have been made following a social media post which shows a number of children, discovered in a car, outside of the station on Monday night.

The post includes three videos, showing the children unattended in the vehicle at night.

In the first the man filming can be heard asking: 'how long have you been in the car?”

'Three or two hours, keeping our babies in the car, who are you guys with? Just yourselves, and they lock you out here like this? How rude, that's shameful,” he says.

He claims to have come from Tauranga, to collect the children, after their mother was arrested.

'I'm sick, I was supposed to come pick up the kids I asked their mother to, because I'm crook and they arrested her and left the kids outside.

'No food, no water, in the car for three hours, is that New Zealand law? This is a family, not criminals.”

The last of the videos shows fast food on the bonnet of the car, and pans to the children eating.

'New Zealand Police you should be proud of yourselfs, I ain't.
'They reckon they're in the law. If I leave my kids out in the car for three hours, I go to jail.”

Police strongly disputes the claims made in this social media post.

In a written statement, Eastern Bay of Plenty area commander Inspector Kevin Taylor says a woman was arrested for breaching bail conditions, which included not associating with some of the children she had in her car.

He says the 30-year-old woman is due to appear in Hamilton District Court on September 20, facing three charges of assault of a child.

'When the woman was arrested, police offered to drop the children to a family member who lived nearby but the woman would not agree to this.

'She arranged for a family member in Tauranga to come and get them instead, he took three hours to arrive.

'Police then suggested the children could wait for the family member inside the station, but again the woman would not agree to this.

'She insisted that the children would be looked after by the 18-year-old in the group and told them to stay in the car and not enter the Police station,” says Kevin.

'Police takes our responsibilities seriously and made every effort to ensure the safety of these tamariki.”