Dominic Thomas Bryan pleads guilty in Roma Magistrates Court to obstructing police

A drunk taxi passenger caught up in a missing receipt fiasco had to be capsicum sprayed by Roma police after a violent outburst.

A Roma man who spent the night in the watch-house for his drunken behaviour after catching a taxi home had his matter heard in court in his absence.

Dominic Thomas Bryan was sentenced ex parte in Roma Magistrates Court to obstructing police.

Police prosecutor Mathew Donnelly said police received information from the taxi dispatch station about a distressed female driver claiming her receipts had been stolen after a drop-off.

When police arrived at the Roma address they were told by the driver two men she dropped off stole a bunch of receipts as they left the car and when she asked for them back they denied taking anything.

The court was told that when police entered the home, they refused to provide their names and said they only took their own taxi invoice.

“Police tried to reason with them, suggesting that they grabbed the rest of the receipts and there had been a misunderstanding,” Mr Donnelly said.

“When asked to check whether that was the case, they were both argumentative.”

Bryan told police, “I’m happy to go down, I know you don’t want to but if that’s what’s going to happen I’ll go down, it’s a receipt mate. There’s c--ts out there stealing cars and s--t, go lock them up.”

Mr Donnelly said as police tried to reason with the defendant, Bryan continued to yell and point his fingers.

“He became increasingly hostile, calling an officer a ‘d--khead’, (and) stated police could not do anything because it was his premises,” Mr Donnelly said.

Police asked for the Bryan’s name again however he refused and grew more aggressive as he continued yelling over the top of police.

Mr Donnelly said when the other male tried reasoning with police to resolve the situation, Bryan interrupted and said “nah, we’re too far gone”.

“The defendant continued to yell over the second male pointing in different directions, ‘someone had their car stolen over there, and these c--ts did nothing, they had their car stolen, c--ts did nothing. If they want to arrest me over a f--king receipt, f--king rigged’,” Mr Donnelly said.

When a third officer arrived for backup, Bryan was given another opportunity to comply however he refused and was arrested while telling officers ‘you’re f--king peanuts, you’re a f--khead, you’re a c--ksucker.’

Upon arriving at the watch-house, Bryan refused to leave the vehicle and had to be physically removed by police.

The court was told he yelled in an officer’s face and clenched his fist, refusing to move and threatening ‘I’ll knock you into next week.’.

Mr Donnelly said Bryan wreathed his body down towards the ground, causing the officer restraining him to almost fall to the ground.

“Another officer saw this and intervened and pushed the defendant away, he’s then transitioned him to the ground so he can be handcuffed, but he continued to resist the four officers resulting in police using capsicum spray,” Mr Donnelly said.

“After being sprayed, he refused the after-care that was being offered.”

Over two hours later since police first responded to the call, tests revealed Bryan had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.156.

Magistrate Shane Elliott fined him $500, referred to SPER. No conviction was recorded.