Cop denied job review

Sacked over wife’s drink-driving

A FORMER Townsville senior constable dismissed from service for failing to charge his wife with drink-driving has lost out on his bid for a review of the dismissal.

Benjamin Stewart Shannon had been working out of Kirwan Police Station when he was dismissed from the Queensland Police Service in March 2021 for the misconduct.

Shannon was found to have failed to charge his wife with drink-driving, when he attended the scene after she crashed her car.

It was found he placed the alcometer in training mode before breathalysing his wife, altering the accuracy of the reading and later misled police about the incident.

His wife later recorded a blood-alcohol content of .14 per cent.

In Townsville Magistrates Court in 2020, Shannon was fined $2500 with no conviction recorded.

In his application to appeal against the dismissal, Shannon’s personal circumstances including financial stress, a marriage breakdown and a child’s life-threatening illness were considered.

Court documents show he urged the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal to consider alternative sanctions of probation with education, or a deferred dismissal with “strict conditions”.

Solicitors for the assistant commissioner of police submitted Shannon’s actions comprised a series of “very poor” decisions that related to the most “basic tenets” of ethical decision-making.

“That of not showing favour to any person before the law, and in this case the applicant’s wife,” documents stated.

Shannon had later misled police by claiming he and another officer had stopped to help a driver who had “broken down”, and that RACQ had towed the vehicle – despite Shannon asking his wife’s father to drive her home.

Documents state that Shannon had not had the intention to mislead the police but that it had been due to his “personal state”, and lack of memory from the night.

Shannon’s “serious personal stressors” and mental health concerns were accepted by the tribunal, but it acknowledged his medical evidence did not prove his health had been a factor in his conduct.

His supportive character references were also acknowledged.

It was accepted the dismissal was not punitive, but protective for the public.

“To permit Mr Shannon to continue as a police officer would undermine public confidence in the integrity of officers and the service,” documents state.

The sanction of Shannon’s dismissal was confirmed.