Cop altered ticket with correction fluid

Police have waived a man's $150 fine after police officer altered an infringement notice with correction fluid.

They say it was a simple error by a junior constable.

Roger Greenfield, of Waikanae, north of Wellington, said he was driving to work at Wellington Hospital on October 19 when he was pulled over on Cable St, Wellington, for driving through an orange light.

The officer took his details and an infringement notice arrived in the mail a few days later.

Mr Greenfield was surprised to read the incident had taken place on Wakefield St -- a one-way road in the opposite direction.

He wrote to the Police Infringement Bureau asking for the ticket to be cancelled because it was "not factual".

But police said his recollection of the incident differed from the officer's evidence and the ticket would stand.

When he again protested -- this time under oath before a justice of the peace -- they sent him the officer's duplicate ticket.

It had been corrected and now said the offence happened on Cable St, Mr Greenfield said.

Police then requested a copy of his original ticket so they could investigate. They informed him last week it had been waived because of an error.

"I wasn't in Wakefield St, so you can't give someone a ticket for being somewhere they weren't. He doesn't know what he's doing. He deserves to lose his job."

Mr Greenfield said the incident had made him question the credibility of the ticketing system.

Sergeant Simon Paterson, of the road policing group, said a young constable unfortunately put the wrong street name on the ticket. He amended a duplicate copy when he realised his mistake, but failed to follow procedure by notifying Mr Greenfield of the change.

Tickets were not legal documents and were sometimes amended by officers, but police had decided to waive the fine because of the procedural error.

"The officer's got confused. He's realised he's got the street wrong so he's changed the location on the duplicate copy.

"Mr Greenfield probably thinks there's been some big cover-up, but that's simply not the case. We see it as a training issue."

- nzpa