Private investigator fails to have licence reinstated
09-08-2016 09:40 PM

A PRIVATE investigator who used information supplied by two detectives, who illegally obtained it from a police computer system, has lost his bid to have his licence reinstated.


Miranda O'Neill.
And a tribunal member has warned investigators, including ex-police, who use old contacts to get information restricted to police, that they can expect to be out of work for significant periods.

Jon Robinson, his sister-in-law and her husband pleaded guilty to criminal offences in 2014 and the two detectives lost their jobs.

But Robinson did not report to licensing authorities, as he was obliged to do, that he had pleaded guilty in May, 2014, to 21 counts of procuring police officers to commit offences.

It was not until it came time for his three-year investigator’s licence to be renewed, more than a year after he was convicted, that the licensing body’s chief executive found out.

Robinson appealed to Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, after he was told in January this year that his licence would not be renewed.

Robinson, who was first licensed in 1995, has not worked as an investigator for eight months.

Former Redcliffe Criminal Investigation Bureau detective senior constable David O’Neill and his wife, former detective senior constable Miranda O’Neill, pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office.

They also pleaded guilty in 2014 to using a restricted computer program to the benefit of Mr Robinson.

The detectives used the police QPrime database to supply details of people being investigated by Robinson.

He obtained car registration details, company addresses and phone numbers, criminal histories, offence dates, domestic violence histories, traffic crash information and physical descriptions.

David O’Neill was sentenced to a six-months suspended prison term and Miranda O’Neill was put on a 2.5 year probation order, with no conviction recorded.

Robinson was sentenced to 18 months’ probation and 240 hours of community service, with no conviction recorded.

QCAT was told Robinson was fed information by the officers after David O’Neill told him in 2011 if he ever needed information about a vehicle or address, he could provide them.

“The fact that police officers often join the security industry when they leave the police service has important consequences for this case,’’ tribunal member Jeremy Gordon said.

It meant they had current police contacts and could be tempted to use them to obtain information restricted to police, he said.

It was contrary to public interest to send a message to the security industry that a private investigator who used contacts in that way could continue to work without significant interruption.

Mr Gordon acknowledged Robinson had shown considerable remorse and was otherwise a man of integrity, but said eight months was not long enough for him to be out of the industry

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