Police officer Zac Aaron Chudleigh on trial charged with fraud, stealing as public servant

An organised crime squad cop allegedly stole and then sold tens of thousands of dollars in watches seized during a house search, telling a Brisbane jeweller some of them were gifted by a dead uncle, a jury has heard.

Detective Senior Constable Zac Aaron Chudleigh leaves the District Court in Brisbane.

An organised crime squad cop allegedly stole and then sold tens of thousands of dollars in watches, that had been seized during a house search, telling a Brisbane jeweller two of the three timepieces were gifted by a dead uncle, a jury has heard.

Former plainclothes constable Zac Aaron Chudleigh, who is self-represented, pleaded not guilty to one count each of stealing as a public service employee and fraud to the value of $30,000 or more ahead of his trial in Brisbane District Court on Monday.

Chudleigh was attached to the Queensland police Organised Crime Gangs Group Taskforce Maxima in August 2020 when he and other police searched a property at Robina on the Gold Coast, the court was told.

At the home police seized four watches – one Hublot watch and three branded as Audemars Piguet – suspecting they were stolen property given their significant value.

The watches were taken to the evidence management unit at Wacol warehouse security centre where seized items are kept by police.

Zac Chudleigh during a previous court appearance. Picture, John Gass

Crown prosecutor Rebecca Guppy-Coles told the court that about two years later in March 2022 Chudleigh visited the warehouse and signed the four watches out.

Over the following months she alleged Chudleigh sold three of the watches on three separate occasions to a Brisbane jeweller for a total of $92,000.

Charges were never laid against the watch owner in relation to the watches and through his lawyers sought them to be returned.

Ms Guppy-Coles said a law clerk attempted to arrange the return of the watches with Chudleigh on 16 different occasions between November and December 2022.

“The defendant only kept one of those appointments in November of 2022 where he returned one of the four watches,” she alleged.

The owner’s lawyers filed a formal application to the court for the return of the watches.

It’s alleged that when queried by police prosecutions the “defendant said he had already returned all of the watches”.

Ms Guppy-Coles said police launched an investigation into the whereabouts of the watches and Chudleigh allegedly said he believed they were in his possession but when he came into his office to look they weren’t located.

“The Crown case will be that the defendant did or said those two things … despite having already sold the watches because he knew that he would otherwise be implicated in the stealing and selling of the watches,” Ms Guppy-Coles said.

An investigation by police into Chudleigh’s bank accounts and finances located the three watch sale transactions, she alleged.

Ms Guppy-Coles said a forensic accountant would give evidence indicating that Chudleigh’s “expenditure exceeded his income in this period of time because he had spent a considerable amount of money gambling”.

The trial continues.

Originally published as Police officer Zac Aaron Chudleigh on trial charged with fraud, stealing as public servant