Commissioner of Police v Gallagher [1988] AFPDT 4

JUDGMENT No, FRG al Bin

IN THE FEDERAL POLICE

No. 5 of 1988

DISCIPLINARY TRIBUNAL

COMMISSIONER OF POLICE

Against

GRAHAM JOHN GALLAGHER

THE MATTER of the

Completa (Australian

Federal Police) Act 1981.

DECISION TRIBUNAL: Mr. Justice Jenkinson, Deputy President DATE: 21 November, 1988 1. The Tribunal finds Senior Constable Graham John Gallagher not guilty of the disciplinary offence charged in the notice (AFP:8/8889) dated 5 August 1988. 2. The Tribunal orders that the costs of the proceedings

before it in relation to the said charge which were incurred by Senior Constable Graham John Gallagher be paid by the Commonwealth.

uty President

IN THE FEDERAL POLICE

No. 5 of 1988

DISCIPLINARY TRIBUNAL

COMMISSIONER OF POLICE

Against

GRAHAM JOHN GALLAGHER

IN THE MATTER of the

Complaints (Australian

Federal Police) Act 1981.

21 November, 1988 MR. JUSTICE JENKINSON — Deputy President

REASONS FOR DECISION

Fs

ae

Senior Constable Graham John Gallagher was charged by the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police with the

commission of the diciplinary offence of improper conduct

'otherwise than in his official capacity. The conduct

particularised as improper is that he supplied a blank medical

certificate form to Peter Francis Roberts.

It was established to my satisfaction beyond reasonable doubt that a young lady named Nancy Rochanakij. furnished to her employer in October 1987 and again in November :1987 what purported to be a medical certificate concerning her unfitness for work on 9 October 1987, in the first instance, and concerning her unfitness for work on 30 October and 2 November 1987 on the second occasion;

that the printed form of the certificate in each case was a

2.

photostatic copy made from a form for use by, and bearing as a superscription the name of, Doctor Nicholas Loizou, a legally qualified medical practitioner who at material times carried on medical practice at Footscray; that the handwritten additions were made, in the case of the first certificate, by Miss Rochanakij, and in the other case by the young man with whom she was then cohabiting, Gavin Roberts, who is a son of the Peter Francis Roberts to whom the particulars of the charge refer; that Senior Constable Gallagher was at material times a friend of Peter Francis Roberts and of Roberts' wife and of his son. Gavin; and that Gallagher was at material times both a patient and an acquaintance of Dr. Loizou, to whose blank medical certificate forms Gallagher had had access in circumstances in which he could without difficulty have taken a number of such forms into his