A highway patrolman has admitted writing fake traffic infringements for non-existent drivers.<\/p>\n
Leading Senior Constable Stephen Alan Saltmarsh wrote the tickets, supposedly following traffic stops on the Hume Highway at Gundagai between May and July 2015.<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old highway patrolman pleaded guilty to 18 charges of unlawfully modifying the restricted police database, and three counts of knowingly making a false statement.<\/p>\n
Facts tendered to Wagga Local Court showed Senior Constable Saltmarsh used the Police COPS database to enter infringements against drivers purportedly from the UK, Thailand, Germany, USA and China.<\/p>\n
It later emerged there was no record of such people entering Australia, and their ACT numberplates had never existed or did not match the type of vehicle described.<\/p>\n
“The accused expressed remorse during the [police interview],” facts tendered to the court stated.<\/p>\n
“He stated he knew what he was doing was wrong, but was unaware that the creation of the reports or submission of the infringement notices and defect notices was a criminal offence,” the facts said.<\/p>\n
The infringements included minor defects, speeding and seatbelt offences, driving in the wrong lane and inappropriate use of high beam lights.<\/p>\n
The Police Professional Standards Command started Strike Force Stonegarth to investigate, after the State Debt Recovery Office raised concerns about the fines, including that there was no in-car video evidence provided for roadside stops associated with the tickets.<\/p>\n
The court was told the police database login screen displayed a warning that improper use could result in fines or jail.<\/p>\n
A NSW Police Force spokesman said Senior Constable Saltmarsh was currently suspended from duty, but continued to receive pay.<\/p>\n
He is due back in court for sentencing in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A highway patrolman has admitted writing fake traffic infringements for non-existent drivers. Leading Senior Constable Stephen Alan Saltmarsh wrote the tickets, supposedly following traffic stops on the Hume Highway at Gundagai between May and July 2015. The 39-year-old highway patrolman pleaded guilty to 18 charges of unlawfully modifying the restricted police database, and three counts … Continue reading “Hume Highway patrolman admits writing 18 fake tickets for non-existent drivers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hume"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}