Eastern freeway crash Porsche driver identified as mortgage broker Richard Pusey

The driver accused of taking photos of a graphic crash where four police officers had been killed made an unfavourable past appearance on A Current Affair.

The Porsche driver accused of fleeing the scene of an horrific crash that left four Victorian police officers dead has been identified as a Melbourne mortgage broker.

Richard Pusey, 41, attended West Melbourne Police Station this morning with a lawyer after Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton “strongly suggested he gets himself down to the nearest police station to present himself to assist with these inquiries”.

The home loan business owner has previously featured on A Current Affair where he was filmed delivering a foul-mouthed tirade to a cancer patient, and boasted of “racing” his Porsche on social media.

Pusey has spent the morning with homicide detectives to help them piece together what happened last night. He is also potentially facing charges for fleeing the scene of an accident, an indictable offence.

Pusey was driving his 2016 Porsche 911 Coupe down Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway just before 5pm last night when he was pulled over for allegedly hitting speeds of 140km/h.

Richard Pusey in custody on Thursday. Picture: 9 News

Richard Pusey is assisting with inquiries.

A further oral fluid test on Pusey found the 41-year-old had allegedly tested positive for drugs.

The decision was made by officers to impound Pusey’s car, leading to the first two officers to call for back-up.

As the four officers stood in the emergency lane to organise the impound, police said a refrigerator truck veered into the lane, hitting the group and killing them.

Porsche driver Richard Pusey verbally abused a cancer patient and was accused of ripping off a string of tradies in 2016 (see ACA promo from my story at the time). Now he’s at the centre of an unimaginable tragedy. More on @9NewsMelb and @ACurrentAffair9 tonight. pic.twitter.com/86wxd75rUC

— Reid Butler (@reid_butler9) April 23, 2020

Back in 2016, Pusey had featured on Nine’s A Current Affair where he was accused of ripping off tradesmen and abusing their families over the disputes.

A promo clip from the program shows Pusey reportedly screaming at one of the tradesmen’s wives who had just returned from hospital after undergoing cancer treatment.

“Get some more f**king cancer you stupid f**king b***h,” he was filmed yelling through a screen door.

In the A Current Affair promo the program suggests he may be “Australia’s nastiest customer”, and reporter Reid Butler commented “that’s disgusting behaviour”.

“He hires you to work on his place, then finds fault with everything and doesn’t pay. He’ll even abuse your sick wife for good measure,” the program claimed.

Pusey’s Porsche and the refrigerator truck responsible for the incident.

Pusey, who runs Switch Now Home Loans, is an avid social media user and often posts about his expensive sports car online.

He was also named as one of the top 100 brokers by Mortgage Profession Australia in 2013.

Pusey had recently made more than a million dollars after selling an inner-city Melbourne property in September. He had bought the Guildford Lane property for $2.8 million in 2017.

The 41-year-old has left hundreds of TripAdvisor reviews, including ones where he boasted about “racing” his Porsche.

“When I’m not racing my Porsche or chasing the Sky Bus for its free Wi-Fi I like to get up and dance,” Pusey wrote on a November 2018 review of a Melbourne helicopter company.
“I’ve found these folks are particularly good at such things and will return one day when my heads not already near the clouds.”

A month earlier, Pusey reviewed Melbourne Airport’s SkyBus company.

“I like to drive behind the bus in my Porsche because it doesn’t have Wi-Fi,” he wrote.

“I set the cruise control so as to allow me to social network and all that cool new age type stuff that’s all the rage. Me and my Porsche enjoy the day out doing this activity.”

Pusey’s Porsche, which is registered in Queensland, was also seen in recent dashcam footage speeding down the same freeway a month ago.

There is no suggestion Pusey was driving however it is the same car.

In the footage, the driver, travelling at 100km/h, can be heard saying “what a f**king idiot” when the Porsche flies past him.

Dashcam video shows the Porsche at the centre of the crash that killed four police officers travelling at startling speed along the Eastern Freeway on March 21. Picture: James Tsagros

The four police officers tragically killed have since been identified as Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Constable Glen Humphris, Senior Constable Kevin King and Constable Josh Prestney.

Police allege Pusey took photos of the graphic crime scene before fleeing on foot down the freeway and sharing the pictures with friends on social media.

Pusey has a criminal history, police said.

Victoria Police Commissioner Graham Ashton said Pusey’s behaviour was “disgusting” and said the photos were “quite graphic”.

“To leave the scene is a very, very low act in my view,” he said.

A number of good Samaritans, including an off-duty doctor, stopped to try and give first aid to the four police officers but they were unable to be saved.

Commissioner Ashton said earlier today the truck driver had suffered some sort of medical episode and had “blacked out” after the crash.

“It's not believed he has suffered injury in the accident but has had some sort of medical episode at the scene and has been taken to hospital for medical treatment. We intend him to be there under police guard for some time.”

A warrant was executed on the truck driver’s Cranbourne home early this morning.

“What was found at those premises is still under investigation,” Mr Ashton said.

The death of the four officers is the single deadliest day for Victoria Police in history.