Top cop on paid leave after breath test refusal

Police have given an assurance that correct procedures are being followed in the case of a senior officer who refused to take a breath test, Parliament was told yesterday.

Superintendent Graham Thomas, head of prosecutions at police national headquarters, was cleared by an internal investigation and is now on six months' paid "medical rehabilitation".

Questioned by Labour's law and order spokesman Clayton Cosgrove, Police Minister Judith Collins said she was briefed on the case on December 27.

"I was later advised that in accordance with the requirements of the police code of conduct, once it became clear that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a criminal case of drink-driving, police moved swiftly to implement employment-related processes," she said.

"The police have made it clear to me that they are following procedures absolutely to the book in all matters in relation to this."

Mr Thomas has been on leave since he was asked to take a breath alcohol test after driving home from a police bar in Wellington.

Police knocked on his front door and asked him to take the breath test. After refusing, he was spoken to at police national headquarters.

Earlier yesterday Ms Collins told reporters it was an employment matter but it was "not a good look, I don't think it's very helpful at all for the police".

In Parliament she was questioned about the way the police responded to requests for information about the incident from a newspaper.

"I am advised that the police answered the specific questions from the journalist correctly but that does not mean to say they were answered to the extent that perhaps the police should have," she said.

Ms Collins told Mr Cosgrove he would have the opportunity to question Police Commissioner Howard Broad about the case when he appears at a select committee hearing today for a routine financial review.

- NZPA