Martyn Craig Grosser dodges jail for aggressive and belligerent towards police

A police prosecutor was left infuriated after a man with a history of aggressive behaviour towards cops was sentenced in a Mount Gambier court.

A police prosecutor tossed documents and kicked a briefcase after a man charged with resisting police was allowed to walk free from Mount Gambier Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Martyn Craig Grosser pleaded guilty to fail to give personal detail to officer on request, disorderly behaviour, resist police and fail to comply with breath analysis after an incident with police.

Mr Grosser, who has a history of assaulting police, was fined and given a good-behaviour bond by Magistrate Koula Kossiavelos.

The sentence he received appeared to frustrate Police Prosecutor Keading, who told the court officers spotted the 55-year-old defendant driving aggressively around 6am on April 14.

Martyn Craig Grosser outside the Mount Gambier Magistrates Court. Picture: Arj Ganesan

Mr Keading grabbed his legal documents and threw them at his briefcase at his feet.

The documents flew over the briefcase and landed in front of the bar table.

Mr Keating then kicked his briefcase, which had been zipped shut, several times before retrieving the thrown documents.

The court heard Grosser became aggressive and belligerent towards police when they stopped him at his workplace carpark and asked for his license and registration papers.

“He was yelling at the police and telling them to F off,” Mr Keading said.

The court heard Grosser refused repeated requests to produce his driver's licence before getting “aggressive” and pushing an officer.

The accused was taken back to the Mount Gambier police station where he refused to submit for a breath test.

Grosser was handed an immediate 12-month loss of licence.

Grosser was convicted of similar charges in 2014, including aggravated assault against police.

At that time he received four months imprisonment, spending a month behind bars before being released on a 12-month good behaviour bond.

Mr Keading urged the court to consider imprisonment as the accused had an issue with authority.

Grosser’s defence lawyer John Kyrimis said police had initially asked for his “registration papers”, a form of identification no longer used.

Mr Kyrimis said the disorderly conduct charge was on the lower end of the scale, having occurred in the car park of an industrial workplace.

“They (police) would have heard swear words before,” he said.

The court heard Grosser drank sparingly and only refused to submit to a breath test because he was angry.

During her sentencing remarks, Ms Kossiavelos said the defendant had acted belligerently and needed to address his attitude.

“He has obviously had some problems with authority,” Ms Kossiavelos said.

However, Ms Kossiavelos noted there were several irregularities with the defendant’s interaction with police.

“Registration papers are now no longer part of the process — it would be unusual for the defendant to have had these registration papers on him,” she said.

“There was no indication that he had been drinking so the request for a direction for alcohol testing under the circumstances may have been unnecessary.”

Ms Kossiavelos reinstated the defendant’s licence, put him on a 12-month good behaviour bond and fined him $1100.

Outside of court, Grosser told the Messenger he was surprised at the “unexpected” outcome.