Carl Trevenar: South Coast police officer found guilty of misconduct charges

A senior police officer hid his face with a mask as he left court, visibly emotional after a $2000 trailer landed him on the wrong side of the law.

A South Coast police officer of more than three decades shook his head in disbelief as he was found guilty of misconduct charges on Tuesday.

Carl Robert Trevenar, 51, a senior constable attached to Nowra Police Station, was found guilty of dealing with property believed to be the proceeds of crime and steal property as clerk by Magistrate Gabriel Fleming at Wollongong Local Court on October 12 after fighting the charges at a two-day hearing earlier this year.

Carl Robert Trevenar hid his face with a mask as he left Wollongong Local Court on October 12.

Trevenar, who had been a police officer for 34 years, became the subject of an investigation in 2018, after the RMS began looking into his ownership and the registration of a trailer.

During the hearing, the court heard in 2014 he paid his parents’ neighbour $2000 for a 7m unregistered trailer, after it “appeared” in the man’s driveway.

At the time, Trevenar ran a kayaking business on the South Coast as a side hustle to his police work, and used a small boat trailer to advertise the business.

The court heard the then-cop swapped the number plates from the tinny, which was later destroyed, onto the bigger trailer, paying the registration from 2014 up until 2019 when the RMS noticed the trailer was different to the one registered to those plates.

Carl Robert Trevenar bought a boat and changed the rego plates.

In handing down her decision, Magistrate Fleming told the court Trevenar would have had reason to suspect the trailer was the proceeds of crime, and that he went to “considerable lengths” to misrepresent the identity of it.

“There is no dispute that he was a police officer of 30 years,” she said.

“He was aware of the lack of ID compliance plates, and that this could indicate the vehicle was stolen, or could have been the subject of fraud,” she said.

“This was an active registration for a trailer that he knew did not exist.”

Magistrate Fleming also said Trevenar had a “clear consciousness of guilt and the suspicion that the trailer indeed may be the proceeds of crime.”

Trevenar was also found guilty of taking a 25 litre container of Monsta Bud Fertiliser valued at $230 from Nowra Police Station while working in the exhibits room in 2014 - despite making a record of it being “destroyed”.

The court heard the fertiliser was taken to the exhibits room after a cannabis bust in the region. On forms filled out at the station, Trevenar marked the fertiliser ‘destroyed’ when asked about the disposal method.

However it was later found at his property at Falls Creek, with the police exhibit barcode still intact.

During the hearing, he told the court he’d had an informal conversation with a senior officer about taking it to his property, however, Magistrate Flemming said she did not accept his evidence and that it was not credible.

“There are clear, strict and documented procedures for the handling of police exhibits,” she said. “He was well aware of these.”

While finding him guilty of the charge, Magistrate Fleming did accept the evidence of Trevenar’s then partner, who said he told her he brought it home to use on their garden because it would have otherwise been thrown away.

As part of her judgment, Magistrate Fleming found Trevenar not guilty of dishonestly obtaining the property (being the trailer) by deception.

Trevenar was visibly emotional during the proceedings and was supported by his parents.

He will be sentenced later this year.