Townsville - Skyline owner speeding fine thrown out of court?

[NismoGirl]

Is this anyone from this forum? If not, it's an interesting read anyway!

Hoon squad sting bungle

By MALCOLM WEATHERUP

07sep04

A MAGISTRATE has thrown out a speeding charge against a man who panicked when chased by an unmarked turbocharged vehicle driven by out-of-uniform police whom he feared might harm him.

At no time during what defence barrister Greg Lynham described as a "bizarre" episode did the police, wearing Hawaiian shirts, identify themselves with lights, siren or other signals.  

Raymond Hessler, 24, now from Brisbane but who was living in Annandale when the incident occurred in January, had made the rare defence of "emergency" and "an offence of compulsion" when he pleaded not guilty to a charge of speeding.  

The Townsville Magistrates Court heard that two officers from the Brisbane-based Traffic Response Group (also known as the hoon squad because of its role in policing souped-up cars), Senior Constables Paul Hocken and Domenic Savoia, were on undercover duty checking on hoon activity on The Strand on January 18.  

They were driving an unmarked turbo-charged Holden Astra.  

In evidence from both the witness box and commentary on a police video in the Astra, the officers decided to follow Hessler in his imported Nissan Skyline Turbo coupe because Sen-Constable Hocken said "drivers of this type of vehicle tend to race each other and experience suggests that other offences may take place".  

On that basis, the police followed the Skyline for 25 minutes, from The Strand out to Annandale, with the police video suggesting that in the main no laws were broken.  

When Hessler became aware of the police car, when he was about three minutes from his home, the police car followed him with lights on high beam as he turned into Hazelwood Court, Annandale, the cul-de-sac where he lived.  

The court heard video commentary from Sen-Constable Hocken telling the driver to block the Skyline and not to let him past as it turned at the bottom of the street.  

Hessler said that when the Astra swerved towards the Skyline, "I panicked, I was just scared, I wanted to get out of there.  

"How was I to know they were police?"  

He said he thought it could have been a stolen car and the occupants would not care if they crashed into him.  

He said his car was often the target for thieves and he did not stop at his house because he did not want the men in the car to know where he lived.  

The court heard this fact was borne out three months later when the Skyline was stolen.  

Mr Hessler gunned the car up on the footpath and took off at speeds up to 125km/h, with the Astra chasing it through the Annandale streets, still without police lights or siren.  

When Hessler eventually pulled over to the side of Oonoonba Road, Idalia, thinking he had lost his pursuer, the Astra suddenly appeared, pulling in front of him.  

He said that even then, identification was not immediately offered.  

Sen-Constable Hocken said the lights and siren had not been used because he did not want to spark a dangerous police pursuit.  

After an examination of the car, the shaken driver was issued with notices that his car was too low and his exhaust too loud. It was the subsequent speeding charge that was opposed in court.  

Magistrate Stephanie Tonkin agreed that Hessler's actions had been reasonable under the circumstances and found him not guilty.  

A statement issued to the Townsville Bulletin yesterday by the Queensland Police media unit in Brisbane said the judgment would be looked at closely before any comment was made.

[Oz]

thats just wrong what the cops did, they had no right to do that common sense says if u have some one following you let alone for some 25 min's ur not going to stop for them if u do not know em ?????? & then after following the poor bugger for that 25 mins then they try & pull him over with only high beams wtf if the car is fitted with the blue & reds turn the ****ing things on with the siren to let the person know who u are this is the shit that bad dreams are made of

I am glad the juge had the smarts to throw it out of court

[strutto]

444-EVA is the number plate of the Astra... Haven't seen it for a while though... But I have confirmed reports from quite a few people from cities on the east coast of Australia that they visited their town...

They must have done a run up the coast... Most of the reports I heard indicated that there was quite a bit of entrapment going on...

They also used to travel around with a few SS Utes... The Utes were the "Drag" cars, and the Astra was the video car...

IIRC, Belgarion and you (Erin) got followed by the Astra yourselves one night?

Take it to the track coppers!

[krawler]

We followed the Astra and took photos of it (oh how the hunter has become the hunted! ho ho ho).

We got followed by a cop ute though. Took it for a trip around the gold coast, showed it some sights and a good time. Quite amusing, they followed us from one end of the coast to the other and back again along back streets and highway alike. We were giggling the whole time. If they followed much longer, I was gonna hop out and give them an invoice for tour guide fees

[NismoGirl]

Hahah that was a good night actually.

I think they eventually got the shits and drove off.. How could you not get suspicious (even if you didn't know it was a cop) of a new ute following you around when no one knew them.

That night with the astra, it was following james, and I was following the astra filming it.

[strutto]

Blatently plagiarised:

on the Hawaiian shirt note there are only two types of people that wear a Hawaiian shirt...

1. Big fat party animals

or

2. Homosexuals...

And coppers aren’t usually big fat party animals....

[RedDrifter]

strutto: I agree hahahahaha

[predator]

lol - they didn't want to spark a "dangerous high pursuit " by using their lights?! errr.. ok maybe it was just because they were scared the average skyline would hose the Astra if they actually knew they were being pursued.

With names like " Paul Hocken" and "Domenic Savoia" no wonder they though they were from Hawaii-Five-O ..

[666DAN]

This sort of thing is getting a bit too common though, twice I've had an unmarked police car driving on my bumper revving, then revving next to me at stop lights....yeah whatever!

Of course though speeding, failure to indicate and tailgating is OK if you're in a police car

A classic example of how distorted it's getting is the policeman on the Sunshine coast that crashed his car doing 175kmh+ chasing a guy that was doing 126Kmh in a 100 zone. Seriously step back and think why are you trying to enforce that fine...speed kills...OK let me go faster and try and catch him for this relatively minor excess of speed compared to my lunatic effort!!!

Another classic, my brother was fined for going through an amber light....by a police car that had to go through a red to pull him over!!!

[bigfella]

to follow for 25 mins is that harresment or stalking, be interested in a legal opinion

[krawler]

That reminds me of a time at Aspley Maccas (yeah I know I know) that had a few of us giggling.... A car pulled out of the hypermarket carpark where we were standing (waiting for a cruise to start actually) and its tires made the smallest of chirps as it went over the white line.

*BANG* Commodore cop car coming the other way slams on the brakes, hooks a u-turn with the inside wheel squeeling and howling as all 14 horses of the commodore V6 went to ground and speeds off after him with the commo rattle-fart noise of the V6 louder than the chirp originally.

"OMG! HE CHIRPED THE WHEEL! *hand brake u-turn*, *burnout launch*, *high speed chase*"

[Squizz]

I saw a new camry as an unmarked cop car the other day, freaked me out. I was following it on the Centenary when it pulled over a VN. I was like, naahhhhh, yeeaaahhhhh???? Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark.

It was that trippy light blue with the goldy pearl through it.

[predator]

sounding like its becoming a bit like melb.. where cops would pull you over in pretty much anything. Thats why i don't speed near any clean bland car more than about 2 years old and why i'm a paranoid mf

Apparently also I found out this morning, "waving your police hat" is a valid way to pull somebody over I was driving along the M1, and I'd spotted the cop a while back so was being a bit careful.. anyhow, this bogan with his nice unsecured load in his ute pulls up next to the cop (unmarked falcon wagon), and i am sitting just behind to see who he pulls over.. passenger cop winds down the window and starts pointing his hat and waving it.. Then the guy don't think got the message, and i saw screaming and some rather angry pointing from the cooper. Guy eventually got the message and pulled over.

I was waiting for the lights, but apparently these days they are "optional" if you can wave your cop hat at em..

[05YKO_r33]

i had a similar thing happen a couple of years ago when i had my vl commodore.

i will proceed to tell my story now..

i was going to post a letter for my mother as i am a good son (note sarcasm) and i pulled up on top of the overbridge at strathpine rd at bald hills turning onto the highway i had the tunes going and all of the sudden these two stooges pull up beside me in a white mitsubishi magna and proceed to wave arms around and yell at me so i wound my window up and accelerated down onto the highway at 110 in a 100 zone then i am getting this magna up my arse and i am thinking there are three lanes here wake up to yourself and go around me.. then i accelerated to about 130 and they still sat up my arse. i thought then that i must have really pissed these guys off and that they were after me so i floored it and took the vl up to about 190 (that is what it said on the ticket later anyway but i thought it was only 180-185) this continued all the way to zillmere rd at aspley across from zupps this required some very dangerous driving in which they nearly wiped out a falcon that they didn't see. then we turned up zillmere rd and sped all the way to kirby rd then turned into kirby rd with magna with no lights and no siren and no nothing to tell me it was the cops up my arse. then we got to robinson rd and sped all the way down to the train station at over double the speed limit the whole way before i got a red light and no where to go at geebung train station.

all of the sudden these fools pull up beside me and tell me "your f**ked" and then pulls out a cop badge and i proceeded to tell him to f**k off and they can't do that,

etc. etc. then they pulled me over basically tried to drag me out of the car. searched my car for drugs and weapons which they found none of. they pulled half the interior out.

i asked how they could justify it and they said they were just following me till a marked car came. bvllsh1t.

i went to court and i wasn't so lucky as the townsville guy. i got over $800 worth of fines and i lost my license for 6 months.

they had plenty of opportunity to come up beside me and tell me to pull over on the highway if there was a problem. but instead they provoked me into a high speed chase.

stupid on my behalf for doing it but even more so on there part for instigating the pursuit in such a dangerous manner.

i learnt a hell of a lot from this expensive lesson

sorry to whige and all but i got screwed over all because i went to post a letter...

[Keegs]

Have had a very similar thing happen to me, however the officer was: Off duty and not undercover and on his way home ununiformed. He thought it would be exciting to do me for sitting in the right hand lane for too long. I was randomly passing cars, beside the fact noone ever gets done for this, it was 1am and the highway was almost deserted. He wanted to undertake me on the left but a car was there so he go cut off. He waved his hands around and started yellings comments out. He also thought it would be exciting to highbeam me for a while and chase me until he pulled up beside me flashing badges and yelling out comments. Aside from this to help his claim and to add a bit more excitment he decided swearing and making a few general accusations were ok. "I've had a sh*t day at work and I dont need ppl like you making it worse" I just went along with him agreed and told him i'd just dispute it in court. A letter was sent to the police station by my law firm and the cop decided his actions were justified. We informed them we would be taking it to court. It's been 4 months and I havent heard anything back, funny about that.

I'm in no way saying that the police are hopeless and that they're all "out to get us" I know that in many situations I would and will require their help. I'm just saying that some perhaps need to look at what they're doing and make sure their not doing it to satisfy their own need of anger or get back at a stereotyped group (the car group). All in all if it was nanna in her corolla, many of the fines we get simply wouldn't happen. So if you get a fine you think is wrong or unjustified, dispute it.

my 5c (2c is rounded down nyway)

Matt

[predator]

05YKO_r33: you speed up when people are tailgating you?? no wonder.. usually i just slow down.. I have seen cops try to regularly try to bait people by doing the same - really they know if the person is silly enough to keep accelerating then the cop will get them.

33niz.. well not sure whether its the same up here, but it can take up to 12 months before you will hear any action regarding court, but it still can come anytime up until 12 months after the offence.

[05YKO_r33]

yeah thanks. i was 19 at the time (as in 5 yeears ago) and it was a magna. when i looked across initially i saw no computer inside or anything else to look like a cop car. this happened before all the new hooning laws came in so it was very strange to see an unmarked cop car especially a magna in my area.

like i said an expensive lesson to learn.

[myR32]

when it comes to cars tailgating or following, i find that pulling into the nearest police station or 24 hr servo gets rid of them rather quickly. doesn't take much time out of your busy life and heaps less stressful than having some mororn follow you home

[predator]

like i said an expensive lesson to learn.

it is a low tactic for them to use.. but they do it regularly, either "get out the way i'm a cop" or just "keep going and I'll book you anyhow"

[hippy]

well doesn't that ruling at the top set a precident?? .. therefore if this thing happens again ... u can just use the above argument??