Most speeding officers on urgent duty?

New South Wales police are playing down figures from the Office of State Revenue which show 1325 police officers have been caught speeding on speed cameras.

The figures from the 2006-2007 financial year mean almost four officers a day are being caught.

That is more than any other public servant group.

The head of the NSW Police Professional Standards Unit, Assistant Commissioner Paul Carey, say the issue is a not a problem.

"The vast majority of those would be cold because we would find the police officers were performing some form of urgent duty," he said.

"That might not have been obvious by the camera detector, in other words they didn't have their lights on."

Most of those fines have been waived.

Quote: "Most speeding officers on urgent duty." Unquote: Well wouldn't that depend on what that "urgent duty" was? What about a detailed list of what those urgent duties were?

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A Melbourne company and its managing director have been fined $100,000 each over the death of a worker in 2006.

It is the first time a company director has been sentenced for a workplace death, under the Occupational Heath and Safety Act 2004.

The Victorian County Court heard the managing director of Manumatic Industries, Stanley Guthrie, told an employee, Frank Grima, to make drip trays for a machine that manufactured exhaust pipes at the company's Epping factory.

The court was told Mr Grima was hit on the head when he approached the machine and died from his injuries.

He was 55-years-old.

The court heard the machine's key safety feature, a laser safety curtain, was not working effectively.

Guthrie pleaded guilty to one count [of?] and Manumatic Industries pleaded guilty to a two charges [of?]

Outside Court Mr Grima's son Paul said he was happy with the sentence.

"Nothing will ever bring back my father but the judge did look into it and made the right call," he said.

Quote One count of what? Two charges of what? Manslaughter? Why was that too hard to print?

Police officer fined for child porn images

A 52-year-old New South Wales police officer convicted of possessing child pornography has been fined and put on a good behaviour bond.

NSW police superintendent Vivian Rex Little, who is currently suspended, was convicted of possessing two images of child pornography found by his ex-wife in 2006.

In Downing Centre Local Court today Deputy Chief Magistrate Paul Cloran said the images, which involved prepubescent children, had to be compared with similar cases which involved hundreds or thousands of images.

In giving Little a two-year good behaviour bond and fining him $4,000, he said courts are obliged to do everything they can to prevent the sexual exploitation of children but this offence was at the lower end of the scale.

Stalking undertaker banned from driving

A "Jekyll and Hyde" undertaker who menaced a woman by chasing her in his hearse after a Rotary Christmas party has been ordered off the road for two years and placed on a good behaviour bond.

Adam James Lee, proprietor of Sydney's Caring Funerals, was stopped by police in the early hours of December 14, 2004, after a woman reported he had been following her.

When Maureen Wyer cut Lee off in her car in Surry Hills, the 37-year-old tailed her in his hearse through two Sydney suburbs, at one point pulling up alongside her and slamming his fist against the side of her vehicle.

Lee also swerved into Ms Wyer's path in an attempt to block her way, forcing her to mount a nearby median strip.

After he was stopped by police, Lee blamed a fellow funeral home employee, saying he was behind the wheel of the hearse.

Lee was convicted in December 2007 of driving in a menacing fashion, under the influence of alcohol and whilst disqualified.

On Thursday he was banned from driving for two years.

Magistrate Christine Haskett, in sentencing Lee, placed him on an 18-month good behaviour bond and ordered him to pay almost $700 in fines and court costs.

"Ms Wyer was clearly afraid that the defendant was going to get out of his car," Ms Haskett told Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court.

"She was distressed ... and yelled at the police to help her.

"She had grave fears for her safety and was in fear that her life was at risk."

Lee's lawyer Roland Bonnici described the career mortician as a "Jekyll and Hyde" character, who used alcohol to self-medicate his deep depression.

He became estranged from his father after setting up a rival funeral business, and his mental health deteriorated after fraud charges were laid over a wrongful cremation.

Lee was last month fined $15,000 for mistakenly burying one body and cremating another, and sending bills to the families.

Mr Bonnici said the matter, in which he had lodged an appeal, had been "hanging over" Lee's head for several years, driving him to drink.

"It's a bit like a Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde," Mr Bonnici said.

"The good side of this man really is with him in many ways ... if you take the alcohol and depression away."

Police prosecutor Paul McGirr agreed that when he was sober, Lee was a "model citizen".

Lee has a history of high-range drink driving, dangerous driving, and getting behind the wheel without a licence.

He was cleared of a number of traffic offences in 2005, successfully arguing that he was mentally ill.

Lee attempted to do so again on Thursday, but Ms Haskett found the offences were too serious to be dealt with in such a manner.

"Given the terrifying ordeal that (Ms Wyer) experienced, it's my view that the defendant should be dealt with in accordance to the law," she said.

The magistrate ordered Lee undergo psychiatric treatment, alcohol counselling and undertake a sober driver program as a condition of his bond.

Brisbane man fined over prostitute motel

A District Court judge has fined a 55-year-old Brisbane businessman for allowing prostitutes to work out of his Kangaroo Point motel.

Timothy Brendon Parker pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of having an interest in a premises used for prostitution.

The court heard police from the Prostitution Enforcement Taskforce targeted the Queensland Motel in 2006 after they became aware prostitutes were working there.

Judge Milton Griffin fined Parker $2,500 but did not record a conviction after hearing Parker had no criminal history and had given up his motel lease.

Woman escapes jail after wedding day crash

A woman who ran into another car on her wedding day, near the Blue Mountains killing the driver, has escaped jail time.

Jennifer Thomas had been on her way to get dressed for her wedding in 2006, when she ran into the back of a car at Kurrajong, being driven by 79-year-old Ronald Hawkins.

Mr Hawkins showed no signs of being significantly hurt, but 16 hours later he died in hospital from brain injuries.

Thomas was charged with negligent driving occasioning death, but the court has heard that everything that could have been done at the scene of the crash was carried out.

While sentencing, magistrate Margaret Quinn described the case as “unusual”.
"The moral culpability ... is low," Ms Quinn said during sentencing.
"Ms Thomas has no record and ... it's not a case of a situation where there have been other matters on (her) record."

Thomas has had her driver’s licence disqualified for 12 months.

She’s also been fined $308.

Drunk diplomat's wife felt up officer

A DIPLOMAT'S wife who squeezed the bottom of a Victorian policeman while drunk and then injured a prison guard after her arrest has avoided a criminal conviction.

Muna Mawrid, 31, whose Norwegian husband is posted to Vietnam, staggered from the bar Amnesia at 5am on May 10 and grabbed the left cheek of the officer's bottom.

"I love you guys," she told him. "You look so f------ hot with your nine-millimetres."

Melbourne Magistrates Court heard yesterday that Mawrid, whose eyes were glazed and speech was slurred, was refused re-entry to the bar by a crowd controller because she was carrying water.

Prosecutor Diana Karamicov said Mawrid then argued with and abused the crowd controller.

Ms Karamicov told the court Mawrid was arrested for being drunk and lodged in a cell at the Melbourne Custody Centre, where she requested her asthma puffer.

She lunged at a female guard and pulled her into the cell and, in the struggle, the guard suffered a lacerated finger which needed stitches.

Mawrid, a Norwegian resident in Australia on a student's visa, pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury and to being drunk in a public place.

Defence lawyer Jim Valos said Mawrid's husband sent her $500 fortnightly and she received a grant from the Norwegian Government for her interpreter's and translator's course at Monash University.

Mr Valos told the court that while it did not excuse his Iraqi-born client's behaviour, her father's treatment under dictator Saddam Hussein had "left permanent scars" on her which surfaced on the night.

A doctor's report two days after the incident had diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress syndrome, he said.

He urged magistrate Amanda Chambers not to convict Mawrid, a submission supported by Ms Karamicov.

Mawrid was put on a non-conviction 12-month undertaking to be of good behaviour, ordered to pay $500 to the court fund and to continue counselling for her condition.

Man fined $2800 for harassing koala

A VICTORIAN man has been fined almost $3000 for harassing a koala.

The 19-year-old from Bamawm, near Echuca, was camping in the Barmah State Park on March 22 when he tried to knock a koala from a tree by repeatedly ramming it with his vehicle.

Earlier, the man had found the koala at the base of a tree near his campsite, the Echuca Magistrates' Court heard.

The man wrapped the koala in his jumper, and released it into a nearby tree.

But when the koala started making a loud nose, the man tried to get it down by poking it with a stick, then later by ramming the tree with his Toyota Landcruiser ute.

A number of nearby campers who witnessed the incident alerted authorities, a statement from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) said.

After being interviewed by DSE wildlife officers, the man was charged with various offences under the Wildlife Act, National Parks Regulations and Land Conservation Regulations.

He was convicted and fined a total of $2800.

People can be prosecuted if they or their pets cause injury or death to koalas, which are protected under the Wildlife Act. Under the Act, offenders can be be fined up to $24,000 or imprisoned for 12 months for the unlawful possession of wildlife.

Intentionally causing the death of a protected species attracts fines up to $5000 or six months imprisonment.

"This is clearly inappropriate behaviour and I would encourage members of the public to report similar incidents to DSE or the police," DSE wildlife officer Greg Chant said.

Child-porn teacher avoids jail

Former Brighton Grammar teacher John Newton Hewitt escaped an immediate jail term after pleading guilty to downloading and possessing child pornography.

Hewitt, 49, of Knoxfield, was imprisoned for 18 months but released on the order that he be of good behaviour for a period of two years and pay a $10,000 bond.

County Court judge Frank Gucciardo said that the children depicted in the pornographic images Hewitt downloaded were the victims of his crime.

"If people such as you don't try to download these depraved pictures there will be fewer abused children," he said.

The County Court heard earlier this week that Hewitt, who used words such as "pre-teen Lolita" to scour the internet for child pornography, was a broken man whose reputation was in tatters.

He was about to take up a senior position at Scotch College when the Australian Federal Police swooped last year.

Prosecutor Krista Breckweg told Judge Frank Gucciardo earlier this week that the AFP acted on a tip-off from the Austrian Interpol, which had been alerted when Hewitt downloaded child pornography from an Austrian website.

Police seized a laptop from his home that contained 266 images and 155 videos, including young girls having sex with men and other children, children aged between 10 and 15 years old using sex toys, and videos of children aged 10 to 14 years in naked poses, she said.

Hewitt had searched for images using keywords including "underage girls", "pre-teen Lolita" and "naked pre-teen sex" and "illegal pre-teen pix".

He downloaded a program called "Historykill" to delete images from his computer's cache, Ms Breckweg said.

In a police interview Hewitt admitted to being "titillated' by the images but said he did not pass them on to other people.

Defence lawyer John Dickinson said Hewitt had led an "exemplary" life before these offences. "Whatever punishment this court inflicts will pale into the shadows because of the punishment he will continue to feel for the rest of his life."

He said Hewitt's career was over, his ex-wife had no contact with him and he had seen his three sons, aged nine to 18, on only three occasions in the past eight months.

Judge Gucciardo said it was hard to accept that someone with Hewitt's experience as a teacher would not reflect on the true nature of child pornography.

The Reverend Brian Porter, the chaplain at Brighton Grammar, said: "He has lost just about everything and now he faces an enormous challenge to discover his true nature."

Top cop gives gun to prostitute Pamela

Senior Constable Steven Owen was fined $1500 without conviction, which was not opposed by Ms Morkos.

When Leading Senior Constable Steven Owen arrived at the Harem brothel in South Melbourne, he was on duty, in uniform, armed - and ready for action.

The highly regarded policeman had been told earlier in the day by his supervisor at Traralgon to drive to Melbourne to undertake various administrative duties.

Melbourne Magistrates Court heard yesterday that booking a one-hour lunchtime session with "Pamela" at Harem definitely was not one of those duties.

Prosecutor Vivianne Morkos said Owen, 45, made the appointment under a false name while driving from Traralgon and entered Harem about 1pm on March 5 after parking his marked police car nearby.

Ms Morkos told the court he was in full uniform and wearing his police-issue equipment belt containing handgun, capsicum spray and baton.

Having paid, Owen was led by Pamela to room 1, where she told him the services would not start unless the gun was removed from the room.

Ms Morkos said: "The prostitute advised (Owen) that there is a room in reception where the handgun could be locked away for the duration of the session.

"(Owen) has removed his equipment belt ... and handed the entire belt and contents to the prostitute and asked her to lock it in the room downstairs."

Ms Morkos told magistrate Peter Reardon that the prostitute carried the items downstairs, but she felt so uncomfortable handling them that a colleague took possession of them.

This prostitute waited for the receptionist to unlock the door to the storage room where the belt and gun - which had been unloaded by Owen - were put on the floor.

Ms Morkos said later that the manager was shown the gun in the room next to the reception lounge and waiting room and which was exposed to clients.

Defence barrister Tim Walsh said Owen had spent $16,000 in three months on dozens of five and six-hour sessions with Pamela, which were "more talking than sex", after his wife of 20 years abruptly left him.

Mr Walsh said Owen, embarrassed, ashamed and bewildered by his offending, had suddenly become a single parent of three children while "still trying to function normally as a police officer".

Owen pleaded guilty to allowing an unlicensed person to carry a firearm and carrying a firearm in an unsafe manner.

Mr Reardon told Owen the vice in the offences was not that he was at Harem, but that he was on duty with a weapon that he gave away without knowing if it was stored properly.

Mr Reardon said that although it appeared to friends and colleagues that Owen was acting normally, "inside you were not acting rationally".

Owen was fined $1500 without conviction, which was not opposed by Ms Morkos. Mr Reardon told him that "like most people, you are entitled to a chance in life to retain your good character".

Woman fined for boozy ruckus on flight

A MELBOURNE woman who was fined $1000 for offences on a Qantas flight said she was served 20 glasses of champagne and other alcohol after take-off.

Bronwyn Streader had drunk the champagne, two glasses of red wine and a gin and tonic while on medication, her lawyer told Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday.

Alex Lewenberg said Streader, 30, was a human rights and refugee activist in Japan, with a doctorate in Japanese culture.

"When I fly Qantas economy I'm lucky to get three glasses of orange juice," Mr Lewenberg said, "but if you're blonde and good-looking you get 20 glasses of champagne."

Streader pleaded guilty to charges of interfering with a crew member, smoking and not wearing a seatbelt during landing. The court heard she had boarded a Sydney-bound flight in Tokyo on March 28 and was seen drinking various types of alcohol.

The prosecution said Streader was served about five alcoholic drinks in a five-hour period. About halfway through the flight she was told to stop smoking, but she lit another cigarette before her packet was confiscated.

When a flight attendant later found evidence she had smoked in a toilet, the captain sent his co-pilot to deliver Streader a formal warning.

"Krieger [the co-pilot] attempted to give [her] the warning but [she] refused to listen and instead reached out and grabbed a pen from the left pocket of Krieger's shirt," said the prosecution's summary tendered in court. "I'm going to sue you. I'm going to take all your names," she had said, and when Krieger reappeared she grabbed his identification on his shirt.

During the aircraft's descent, Streader left her seat, refused to return to it and stood in the galley during landing, after which she was arrested.

Mr Lewenberg said his client had been seriously assaulted in Tokyo, and on the flight she had been affected by a combination of alcohol and medication.

In his sentencing remarks, the magistrate, Lance Martin, said Streader had been bitterly disappointed with the Japanese authorities' response to her assault. Mr Martin said although misbehaviour on aircraft could put lives at risk, he accepted that Streader, who flew from Japan for yesterday's hearing, was traumatised and had acted out of character.

She was put on a 12-month bond, without a conviction, and ordered to pay $600 to the court fund and $400 in costs.

Teens face extreme body art ban

Extreme body art, including branding and scarification, will be banned for people under 18, under changes to be introduced into the NSW parliament today.

Minister for Community Services Kevin Greene will introduce legislation closing a loophole that allows scarification, beading and branding of under-18s.

Scarification and branding involve permanently scarring the skin, while beading is the placement of foreign objects under the skin.

The changes bring the law in line with current legislation on tattooing.

"The Iemma government is responding to the well-founded concerns of parents whose kids are falling prey to peer pressure for the sake of a trend," Mr Greene said in a statement.

"It is absolutely vital that we protect impressionable children from short-term fads like scarification, branding and beading which all cause life-long damage to the body."

Last week, the government announced new laws banning intimate body piercing for children under 16 and requiring parental permission for all other piercings.

The maximum penalty for performing scarification, branding or beading on a person under 18 in NSW will be $22,000.

Parents of drunk children face fines

Parents of drunk children may be subject to counselling and fines as part of a NSW government program to crack down on underage drinking.

Nearly 1,700 children were treated in hospital for alcohol in the past year - some as young as 10.

At Sutherland, in southern Sydney, police are trialling a program that requires parents to attend counselling sessions with children who are caught drinking.

If they fail to attend, they could face fines of up to $500.

Up to 140 underage drinkers and their parents are attending the sessions.

"Parents have two chances of turning up," a police spokeswoman said. "If they don't end up attending the session, then the fine is issued."

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