Jonathan David Cousins is charged with fraud and drug possession

A magistrate issued an arrest warrant against a Mackay police officer as he blasted QPS procedures. Find out why.

A magistrate issued an arrest warrant against a Mackay police officer for not complying with court orders as he blasted QPS procedures.

The courtroom back and forth happened during a mention for a man facing fraud and drugs charges with Magistrate Damien Dwyer calling for the incident to be passed to Mackay’s police superintendent.

Jonathan David Cousins is charged with fraud between November 4, 2018 and April 6, 2019 and possessing dangerous drugs on August 18, 2021. A trial date has been listed and matters are adjourned to May 11.

Mr Dwyer had queried why the brief of evidence had not been provided to Mr Cousins’ solicitor Rob Beamish, of McKays Solicitors, by deadline and ordered the arresting officer to front court on Monday morning.

Magistrate Damien Dwyer.

When he was not in court when called, Mr Dwyer issued an arrest warrant.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Paul Cramp said he had been told on Friday the issue was material missing from the brief of evidence, some of which was supplied by early Monday morning.

“I want to know why my order that (the Senior Constable) be here this morning was not complied with,” Mr Dwyer said.

“This brief was ordered to be delivered by March 21, 2022. Why wasn’t it done?” Mr Dwyer queried, adding especially when it was able to be finalised in about one day.

The court heard the senior constable had been on “rec leave” and then he was away on a specialist selection course and had been unaware of the directions regarding the brief of evidence.

“Is it police procedure that if the court makes an order and it’s not convenient for the officer or the police service, it just doesn’t happen,” Mr Dwyer asked.

The usual process if a court-ordered deadline cannot be met is to apply to the court for an extension of time, which was not done in this case.

“It was just a contempt of this court’s orders,” Mr Dwyer said.

Sergeant Cramp said there was no deliberate contempt, adding that he had told the senior constable not to be at court at 9am.

“I’ll accept that (the officer) was under a misapprehension,” Mr Dwyer said.

To the officer, Mr Dwyer said: “For your benefit and you can tell all your mates out there in the police service, that if I make an order, it cannot be countermanded.

“Now I’ve issued a warrant for your arrest. I’ll accept in this instance that you were under a misunderstanding about what you have to do in respect to court orders.

“I’ll withdraw and cancel that warrant. I won’t do it again if it happens again.”

Mr Dwyer said: “All I can say is this in unsatisfactory, I want this matter referred to the superintendent so he knows exactly what’s going on.”

Originally published as Jonathan David Cousins is charged with fraud and drug possession