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How boozy night out ended cops' careers
Words: Zizi AverillProducer: Andrew Piva
Former NT police officers Christopher Beaumont and Wade Hawkins will remain under house arrest for 12 months after trying to cover up a crash in a cop car after a boozy night out near Uluru.This is how it went down.
On a wild night on Friday, November 26, the two officers started pre-drinking at the Outback Pioneer Hotel in Yulara before walking to the Lions Club for an open bar farewell party.
The last drinks call at 9.30pm didn't stop the officers, who returned to the hotel until it closed at 11.45pm. The party then carried on at the Yulara Police Station social club, where they continued to drink.
Later that night, while Hawkins drove others home, a drunk Beaumont left the station in a police car and headed towards the Lasseter Highway.
During the trip Beaumont crashed into a rock monument at the highway intersection. The smash split the monument in half, damaged the car’s bull bar and triggered the airbags.
Beaumont fled the scene in the damaged car, even driving on the wrong side of the road to his Mutitjulu home. There he called Hawkins “in a distressed state”, before reporting the crash.
Christopher Beaumont
Wade Hawkins
Upon realising that he would need to undertake a breath test, Beaumont panicked. He went next door and pleaded with his neighbour to blow the breathalyser on his behalf to get a zero reading.
When Hawkins arrived he used the breathalyser on Beaumont’s neighbour, photographed the negative reading and the damage to the car. Both signed a statutory declaration swearing the zero reading was true.
Five days after the crash an independent police investigation arrived in town. That same day both Hawkins and Beaumont admitted to the cover up.
Both officers left the force after the crash. Hawkins now works as a part-time aircraft refueller, while Beaumont is employed at a lawn mowing business and a mental health support service.
Both men were sentenced to two years and three months in jail at the NT Supreme Court. However, their prison terms were immediately suspended as they each entered 12 months of home detention.
																																								

Original URL: https://www.ntnews.com.au/web-stories/free/nt-news/wade-hawkins-chris-beaumont-how-cops-concealed-boozy-crash