POLICE acting on an Abe Saffron tip-off arrested his son on a trumped-up drug charge, forcing him into electric shock treatment in Sydney's infamous Chelmsford Hospital.

Alan Saffron says he escaped with the help of his mother just before a lobotomy was due to be performed by Dr Harry Bailey, who took his own life in 1985 after the hospital's bizarre psychiatric practices and deep-sleep therapy were exposed.

Mr Saffron said he was 20 or 21 when he emerged from a casino into the arms of police, who claimed they had found drugs at his apartment.

"At the time I did not know [my father] had set it up. I found out some years later and I was infuriated," he said. "I have five children and I could not imagine doing that to my children under any circumstances."

Mr Saffron believes his father was trying to keep him out of clubs.