Round 4 - CBRI

Question 1

1. Please state your name and rank for the court.

Answer 1

I’m Senior Sergeant Checkers Britton.
I’m actually a British citizen but I was granted honorary citizenship of Australia back in 1999 because I saved a koala from starvation by feeding it milk and leaves I found in my garden.

Question 2

What is your experience as a police officer?

Answer 2

I’ve been a police officer in the UK, New Zealand and Peru, would you believe it.

Question 3

What experience have you had investigating cases of theft?

Answer 3

In all that time as a police officer I’ve seen it all – stolen goannas being traded for diamonds, the great poached egg theft of 2002, and everything in between. You might say I was a bit of an expert on stealing related offences in those early days.

Question 4

How long have you been a Senior Sergeant?

Answer 4

I was promoted to Senior Sergeant from Sergeant about 6 months ago.

Question 5

Can you describe your work since you became a Senior Sergeant?

Answer 5

Since then, I’ve mostly been stuck in the office doing paperwork.

Question 6

What were you doing on the 2^nd of February?

Answer 6

On 2 February 2021, I received a call from the General Manager at Mental Games in the local Chessterton Shopping Centre. I can show you on the map if you like.

Question 7

Senior Sergeant Britton, can you please show the court where Mental Games is located on the map and for the purposes of the transcript, state the shop number?

Answer 7

[Points to map]. Mental Games is shop number 42.

Question 8

Was this the first time you had received a call from Chessterton Boardwalk? ​

Answer 8

We’ve had trouble there in the past.

Question 9

You were telling the court about prior incidents, what did those incidents entail?

Answer 9

Some of my junior officers have told me about that spate of loitering we have had in the area, and with people running out the place with their bags swinging around.

Question 10

Did anything else happen on 2 Februrary 2021 that you recall?

Answer 10

The same day we had a poor lady hit. She fell over. Luckily, she’s ok. Never did catch the fella that knocked her over.

Question 11

How long have you been on active duty in the community?

Answer 11

I haven’t been on the beat for a while actually. As I say I’ve been stuck doing the paperwork.

Question 12

What did you do after you got the call from Mental Games?

Answer 12

Anyway, after I got the call from Mr Blacc I decided to get out of the office and deal with this one myself.

Question 13

What happened when you arrived on the scene?

Answer 13

When I arrived, Mr Blacc told me “my employee Thumper took a gold chess piece and went home with it”. He had red eyes and was obviously very upset about losing this special item.

Question 14

Can you describe Mr Blacc’s behaviour when he spoke to you?

Answer 14

He had red eyes and was obviously very upset about losing this special item.

Question 15

How many people were with you at the time? ​

Answer 15

I couldn’t hear him very well because of all the people in the room.

Question 16

What did you do next?

Answer 16

Mr Blacc pointed out the area where the chess piece was stolen from. I went a bit closer to check it out. Mr Blacc came with me.

Question 17

How did the area look?

Answer 17

I asked him what exactly was missing. He adjusted his spectacles and checked the pamphlet showing the pieces that came with the chess set. He told me “yep, it’s the bishop that’s missing” and he pointed to an empty square on the chessboard.

Question 18

What did you see? ​

Answer 18

I saw that the gold bishop was missing. That’s when Mr Blacc started crying.

Question 19

How did you react?

Answer 19

I thought I had better get a move on.

Question 20

What did you do? ​

Answer 20

I tracked down the employee in question and arrested him at his home. I did not locate the chess missing piece. The Accused was processed and the present charges preferred.