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An intoxicated police officer who crashed a patrol car then pressured a local civilian to take a breath test for him, a court has heard.
Following the incident, Senior Constable Wade Hawkins and Remote Sergeant Christopher Beaumont fabricated sworn statutory declarations, after Beaumont lost control of a police car and smashed into a rock monument in the Northern Territory.
The incident unfolded in the remote community of Yulara, near Uluru, in November 2021.
The men – who have both since resigned from the police force – pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice in the NT Supreme Court.
Beaumont also pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol.
Former NT police officer Douglas Beaumont (pictured) crashed a patrol car last November while drunk and then pressured a local civilian to take a breath test on his behalf, a court has heard
The two had started started drinking at about 7pm on November 26 last year, but when the pub closed, Beaumont drove a marked police car to the Yulara station, where he met Hawkins and other friends, the ABC reported.
The group continued drinking at the police social club to the point were Beaumont was seen vomiting and appeared ‘highly intoxicated’, before calling in sick for work.
The following day, just after 6am, Beaumont drove his squad car along Yulara Drive and lost control.
The collision saw airbags deployed and the monument was also damaged.
Beaumont, who was the sergeant of Mutitjulu police station at the time, drove the damaged car to Mutitjulu, an Indigenous community inside the Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park.
Soon after he called Hawkins in a ‘distressed state’ and then asked a local to ‘blow into the breathalyser to get a zero reading.’
Following the incident, Senior Constable Wade Hawkins and Remote Sergeant Christopher Beaumont fabricated sworn statutory declarations stating Beaumont had returned a zero reading from a mandatory breath test (stock image)
The court heard the civilian ‘reluctantly agreed’ to do so, feeling somewhat pressured as Beaumont was well known due to his status as the local police sergeant.
Hawkins and Beaumont then both signed statutory declarations confirming Beaumont had returned a zero reading on his breath test.
Following an investigation by other officers, both men admitted lying and were charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The offences carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
Lawyers for Beaumont, barrister Mark Thomas and solicitor Luke Officer, told the court the former police officer recognised his ‘fault and failing’.
Both Senior Constable Wade Hawkins and Remote Sergeant Christopher Beaumont have since resigned from the NT Police Force following the incident (stock image) – attempting to pervert the course of justice carries a maximum term of 15 years in prison
‘He has, in one fell swoop, destroyed his reputation both in [Mutitjulu] and more generally, and is throwing away a lengthy and productive career in the NT Police,’ Mr Thomas said.
Crown prosecutor Marty Aust said while the offenders were ‘men of good character’, their crimes were serious and struck ‘at the heart of the administration of justice’.
‘Both of these men were well-regarded, well-respected, hard-working police officers who really were the face of the NT Police department in a remote community,’ Mr Aust said.
‘Many of the members of that community were socially disadvantaged and Aboriginal and looked to the men to uphold the law and be the face of the law.’
Beaumont and Hawkins will be sentenced in May.
Source: DailyMail
