Yass Valley Police Inspector David Cowell spoke with the Yass Valley Times on the morning of Monday, the 4th of September, reporting a series of police updates throughout the previous week including Roadside Breath Tests, Arrests, and alleged fraud, as well as issuing a warning for repeated traffic offences near the Comur Street and Pettit Street area.
During the last week of August, Police have been investigating the use of fraudulent scripts to obtain medication from local chemists and pharmacies. That investigation culminated in the arrest of a 37-year-old woman from Canberra, with the arrest taking place on the 3rd of September. These scripts were being used at local pharmacies. Police had been receiving complaints and commenced the investigation.
At 9:50 am on Sunday the 3rd, Police were contacted by a local pharmacy where the suspect had entered the store and attempted to pick up some script medications. Police attended and spoke to the suspect, who was then arrested and brought back to the station to be interviewed. She was subsequently charged and released on strict bail conditions to attend court later next month.
The suspect was charged with four counts of allegedly obtaining prescriptions under false representation, forged or altered prescription, driving while licence was suspended and driving with an unregistered vehicle.
On Roadside Breath Tests, Yass Police were happy to announce that the week had seen little in the way of drinking incidents, with Inspector David Cowell noting that over the weekend many football clubs had been celebrating at local venues incident-free, noting they are “Happy with the conduct over the weekend as it shows people can behave while having a good time”.
“That’s really good for a weekend”.
However, one RBT was still reported. Just before 9pm on Thursday, Police were conducting patrols on the Barton Highway near Murrumbateman, where they stopped a motor vehicle and spoke to a male driver from Canberra who returned a positive reading on the Roadside Breath Test. He was taken back to the Yass Police Station for a breath analysis which returned a reading of 0.053, falling under a low range reading.
“That’s the low range reading. You still need to be under 0.05.” said Inspector Cowell.
The person was charged with the offence of low-range drink driving and will front court later in the month. On how low-range readings generally come up, David states it could be from catching them at the wrong time (ie, towards the end of their intoxication), mild carelessness or recovering from a night of drinking;
“The low readings are normally from having a few drinks and thinking they’re okay to drive after a bit of a wait, but just not long enough, or a lot of the times it’s the morning after, so they’ve gotten up for work and aren’t thinking about it”.
Police note repeated failures to stop at a red light occurring at the pedestrian crossing along Comur Street and Pettit Street, near Berinba Public School. David notes that the lights are green most of the time, resulting in locals being conditioned to it being green and don’t check or expect for it to be red.
Police will patrol this area more. The issue will be brought to the next local traffic committee meeting for discussions and possible solutions and sent to Transport for NSW for review.
