More than 650 Victorian motorists tested for alcohol or drugs have been charged by police officers without authorisation.
In an embarrassing administrative error, Victoria Police has admitted that over an eight month period, 660 invalid authorisations were granted to police to conduct the tests.
It was found that “certificates of authority” granted to police to operate breath analysing instruments, conduct oral fluid tests and drug impairment assessments were wrongly signed by a deputy commissioner of police.
Instead, the authorisations – granted between July, 2014, and last month – should only have been issued by the chief commissioner.
It was overlooked that when the Victoria Police act replaced the Police Regulations act in July last year, a deputy commissioner could no longer authorise the certificates.
Fairfax Media has obtained a recent letter by superintendent Spiros Kalliakmanis to Katie Miller, president of the Law Institute of Victoria, in which he detailed the invalid authorisations issued under the Road Safety act.
Superintendent Kalliakmanis is believed to have also notified the Victorian bar and Victoria Legal Aid.
He wrote that on March 5 the acting chief commissioner had issued new delegations and authorities to “immediately address the administrative error for tests and assessments” from that date.
He said Victoria Police maintained that the “result of the test or assessment is accurate” and it intended to prosecute the “matters impacted by this administrative error”.
It had also notified those with matters currently before a court about the issue and “suggested that those persons might like to seek independent legal advice on what this information means for their individual circumstances”, he said.
It is believed that some of the alleged offenders were issued with infringement notices, charges against others were directed for a court hearing, while some accused elected to have their matters heard by a magistrate.
The state government would also be expected to introduce retrospective legislation to correct the glitch.
This story first appeared in The Age
