CHARGES
against a central Victorian police inspector accused of perjury and
misleading the director of the Office of Police Integrity will be
dropped.
The Bendigo Advertiser understands the charges will be withdrawn in the Melbourne Magistrates court on Wednesday.
Inspector
Mark Edwards was suspended without pay in August last year following an
investigation by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption
Commission, formerly the Office of Police Integrity.
As reported in the Bendigo Advertiser
at that time, the investigation related to how police handled the
investigation into former Bendigo police officer Dean Robinson, who
crashed his car into a hotel while drink-driving in 2011.
Robinson has since left the force and another officer was fined and disciplined internally for their involvement.
Others
have been disciplined for 'peripheral issues' detected during the
investigation, but which did not relate to the drink-driving incident.
They included inappropriate use of the police email system.
The Bendigo Advertiser believes a public servant was encouraged to resign as a result.
The Bendigo Advertiser
reported in 2012 that the OPI and Victoria Police Ethical Standards
department were investigating several Bendigo officers in relation to
their response when an off-duty officer left the scene of an accident
after drink-driving.
One officer, now
known as Robinson, had been suspended at the time for alleged
drink-driving and leaving the scene of an accident, and several others
were being investigated for allegedly breaching proper protocols in the
hours after the fact.
It was believed
one officer blew into a breathalyser on behalf of the intoxicated
officer to register a zero alcohol reading, however that reading was not
used or officially recorded on any paperwork.
The
three-hour time period during which blood alcohol readings can be
recorded at the police station was then allowed to lapse, meaning there
was no legal record of Robinson's limit at the time of the alleged
incident.
Robinson did provide a breath
sample some hours afterwards and recorded a blood alcohol reading of
0.111 – more than twice the legal limit.
The Bendigo Advertiser
understands the incident followed a drinking session at the Foundry
Arms Hotel on November 17, 2011, during which several police officers
argued about personal relationships.
Robinson
left the hotel in an emotional state, and crashed the car he was
driving near the Queens Arms Hotel in Quarry Hill before fleeing the
scene.
Robinson pleaded guilty in March
last year to drink-driving, driving in a dangerous manner and failing
to stop at the scene of an accident.
He
lost his driver’s licence for 11 months and later resigned from the
police force before internal investigations had concluded.
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