Dennis Hoyn: Disgraced cop escapes jail after jury finds him guilty of misconduct
A former cop has escaped jail time after he passed on information from a confidential police system to his mates, one of which was a convicted drug dealer.
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A disgraced Campbelltown cop has escaped jail time after unlawfully accessing, and passing on confidential police information to his mates.
Former highway patrol officer Dennis Hoyn was found guilty of four counts of wilful misconduct in public office and not guilty of two others by a jury at Wollongong District Court in July.
Hoyn returned to court on Friday, where Judge Andrew Haesler sentenced him to one year and two months jail to be served in the community by way of intensive corrections order.
In handing down his sentence, Judge Haesler said Hoyn “dropped the ball” when it came to his obligations as a police officer.
“The essence of his offence is a breach of trust,” he said.
“ … He still fails to appreciate how serious his offences were.”
One of the people Hoyn supplied information to was convicted Illawarra drug dealer Goran Despotovski, who also faced court for sentencing on Friday on a charge of making a collusive agreement with a member of the NSW Police.
Judge Haesler sentenced Despotovski to 12 months jail time, after he admitted asking Hoyn for information on a particular person on December 5, 2018 after meeting the former cop at Corrimal Hotel.
During the trial, the Crown dubbed Hoyn a ‘lone ranger’, telling the jury he illegally accessed the police force’s Computer Operational System (COPS) on several occasions between February and December 2018 while working as a highway patrol officer.
The Crown claimed Hoyn looked up number plates and names in the system after receiving texts from several people who asked for them.
Deposit Hoyn maintaining his innocence, arguing what he did was within the scope of his duties, the Crown described his offending as “unlawful and unjustified”.
During the trial, the jury heard Hoyn looked up details about another person for Despotovski, and took a photo of the information to show his new mate because he “felt sorry for him”.
The Crown said his excuses for looking up the information were “pathetic”, while Hoyn’s defence lawyer Nichols Moir told the jury there was “no contest” that he accessed the system and recorded the information as suggested by the Crown, however argued that his client did not act unlawfully or outside of his duties.
In handing down his decision on Friday, Judge Haesler said while he agreed Hoyn did not know about Despotovski’s criminal dealings, his actions were “reckless”.
“ The (he met at the pub) stranger turned out to be a drug dealer and the information he passed on could have compromised a police investigation,” he said.
As part of his sentence, Hoyn was also ordered to complete 100 hours community service.