Top NT cop Assistant Commissioner Peter Bravos sets sail on long-running paid sick leave

ONE of the Northern Territory’s highest-paid police ­officers is skippering his $250,000 yacht in an international ­sailing regatta while on long-running paid sick leave

One of the Northern Territory’s highest paid police ­officers, Assistant Commissioner Peter Bravos, is skippering his $250,000 yacht in an international ­sailing regatta while on long-running paid sick leave

ONE of the Northern Territory’s highest-paid police ­officers is skippering his $250,000 yacht in an international ­sailing regatta while on long-running paid sick leave.

Assistant Commissioner Peter Bravos, who earns a ­salary package in excess of $260,000, left Darwin on ­Saturday as part of the 425-nautical-mile Darwin Dili Yacht Rally.

Mr Bravos’s social media accounts describe his yacht Anastasia as having sailed throughout Indonesia, the Mediterranean, and the ­Dalmatian Coast in the ­Adriatic Sea.

Assistant Commissioner Peter Bravos’ yacht is ­understood to have sailed to Dili with a crew of six, including Mr Bravos’s wife, Cindy Bravos, who is the NT director-general of licensing

The rally’s start list shows Mr Bravos is skippering his yacht in a competitive division of the race, which millionaire hotelier Doug Sallis is ­favoured to win on his new yacht Colie.

Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw last month told Parliament Mr Bravos was away from work on sick leave, which the NT News understands has been the case for at least a year.

Mr Bravos had been occupying the role of Assistant Commissioner for “People and Capability”, a position which included oversight of professional standards, police recruitment and training.

But Mr Kershaw quietly ­restructured Mr Bravos’s role out of existence in changes to senior police ranks, reassigning Mr Bravos’s former ­responsibilities to Assistant Commissioner Peter Gallagher under the new “Specialist Services and Capability” role.

A police spokeswoman ­on Monday confirmed Mr Bravos was on sick leave.

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The spokeswoman had earlier said it would be improper for her to confirm that Mr Bravos was on leave, ­despite Mr Kershaw having spoken about the same issue publicly last month.

The spokeswoman confirmed Mr Bravos earned a ­salary package of $262,719 this financial year.

The NT News is not suggesting Mr Bravos’s sick leave contravenes NT Police guidelines.

Territory police have access to unlimited paid sick leave.

Mr Bravos’s yacht is ­understood to have sailed to Dili with a crew of six, including Mr Bravos’s wife, Cindy Bravos, who is the NT director-general of licensing.

Mr Bravos was scheduled to give an interview with the NT News about the race on Thursday, but a race organiser said he became suddenly ­unavailable, and he did not respond to questions sent on Monday to the social media account on which he posts photos of the yacht’s adventures.

Mr Bravos’s prolonged illness is among a series of ­vacancies in the senior ranks of NT Police, which Police ­Association president Paul McCue recently said was ­contributing to low morale among frontline police.