Regan Vicky Collis corrections officer faces Taree Local Court charged with hindering police

A Mid-North Coast corrections officer has been accused of hindering a police investigation. Here’s the latest from court.

Taree Police Station and courthouse.

A corrections officer has been charged with hindering a police investigation into her partner at the time, who was ultimately cleared of recruiting a boy to burgle their home as part of a $75,000 insurance scam.

Regan Vicky Collis has pleaded not guilty to the charge of hindering an investigation into a serious indictable offence of another person.

A hearing got underway in Taree Local Court on Monday and the court heard Ms Collis’s ex-partner Daniel French has been acquitted of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and recruiting a child to carry out or assist in a criminal activity.

The charges stemmed from an alleged incident at a home where the couple lived together in Upper Lansdowne, a rural area north of Taree, in March 2020.

It is alleged during the police investigation Ms Collis urged her partner to leave NSW to avoid potentially spending up to 12 months remanded in custody while the matter was dealt with.

Regan Vicky Collis leaves Taree Local Court..

But when Ms Collis testified, she told the court she had been urging Mr French to go to Queensland where his two children lived, prior to borders being closed due to Covid.

It was not disputed that after officers attended her Upper Lansdowne home and asked to speak with Mr French she texted him 24 times saying “call me”.

Ms Collis told the court she “didn’t physically press send 24 times” and the message bounced back and forth between the phone towers in the region.

Mr French was in the Walcha area “seeing his elders” at the time, Ms Collis told the court. He was previously a youth worker employed to help underprivileged Aboriginal children.

Daniel French with Regan Collis. Mr French has already been cleared.

The court heard Ms Collis owned the Upper Lansdowne property where the couple lived, but she now lives in Cundletown – a small riverside town on the outskirts of Taree – and continues to work as a community corrections officer at Department of Justice NSW.

Ms Collis’ lawyer argued her actions did not hinder the investigation, but the lead investigator, who gave evidence, said it made police change the course of their investigation.

The officer giving evidence also told the court he felt “incredibly sorry for Ms Collis” as some of her property was taken during the break and enter at the Lansdowne property and he had personal experience of being stolen from.

He said he told Ms Collis she was potentially living with a psychopath and that triggered her to “freak out” and call Mr French.

It was also heard that she brushed off this suggestion.

Magistrate Allison Hawkins told the court she would not be making a decision on the day.

The case was adjourned to August 23 and Ms Collis’s bail was continued.