Powershell Windows ACL - windows

Question

We are running the script mentioned below to change a heap of ACL permissions which needs to be down to the file level as we are migrating from one environment to another.
The script below is working for folders/subfolders but appears to fail when it comes to the actual files themselves.
$items = get-childitem \\file.location.com.au\project\people\user1 -recurse | select-object -property fullname
Foreach ($item in $items) {
# Get the ACL for an existing folder
$existingAcl = Get-Acl -Path '$item'
# Set the permissions that you want to apply to the folder
$permissions = 'SERVER\USER1', 'Read,Modify', 'ContainerInherit,ObjectInherit', 'None', 'Allow'
# Create a new FileSystemAccessRule object
$rule = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule -ArgumentList $permissions
# Modify the existing ACL to include the new rule
$existingAcl.SetAccessRule($rule)
# Apply the modified access rule to the folder
$existingAcl | Set-Acl -Path '$ITEM'
}
As you can see we are getting the below error and im unsure why. Is someone able to see what im missing?
I have spent a lot of time with no progress on rectifying this issue.
At line:14 char:1
+ $existingAcl.SetAccessRule($rule)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull
Get-Acl : Cannot find path '$item' because it does not exist.
At line:5 char:16
+ $existingAcl = Get-Acl -Path '$item'
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (:) [Get-Acl], ItemNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : GetAcl_PathNotFound_Exception,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetAcl
Command
You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.

Answer 1

This should put you on the right track:
$items = get-childitem \\file.location.com.au\project\people\user1 -recurse | select-object -property fullname
# Set the permissions that you want to apply to the folder
$permissions = 'SERVER\User1', 'Read,Modify', 'Allow'
# Create a new FileSystemAccessRule object
$newaccessrule = New-Object -TypeName System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule -ArgumentList $permissions
Foreach ($item in $items) {
# Get the ACL for an existing folder
$existingAcl = Get-Acl -Path $item.FullName
# Modify the existing ACL to include the new rule
$existingAcl.SetAccessRule($newaccessrule)
$existingAcl.SetAccessRuleProtection($false,$true)
# Apply the modified access rule to the folder
Set-Acl -Path $item.FullName -AclObject $existingAcl
}