Police officer filed false paperwork to try to land an innocent man in jail

A police officer who tried to falsely prosecute an innocent Victorian man must perform community service after a judge found the conduct threatened to erode the public’s trust in the justice system.

Thomas Horsburgh, 35, filed a brief of evidence he knew to be false while he was working as a senior constable out of Drouin police station in 2020.

In sentencing Horsburgh, County Court judge Stewart Bayles noted police held considerable power over the community.

“[This] is inherently serious offending. It strikes at the heart of the criminal justice system,” Bayles said.

The court heard Horsburgh and his colleague Nathan Evans attempted to pull over motorist Daniel Bush about 3.30 in the morning of June 28, 2020 for a traffic intercept just outside the Longwarry Caltex service station.

When Bush drove off, Horsburgh and his colleague filed false statements claiming one of the officers had been partially hanging out of the car when the driver fled the scene.

Bush later said he believed he was being carjacked when the police car pulled alongside him, and he fled in fear, careering into a ditch nearby.

The officers later compiled statements to say Evans had his arm inside the vehicle and was trying to remove the keys while yelling directions at the driver when Bush “booted it”, putting Evans’ life at risk and nearly running him down.

After the driver eluded the police, the officers went inside the service station to ask for the footage.

“I just did not quite get the door open. He did not know we were there,” Evans said to his colleague on the CCTV captured inside the Caltex.

“You did get the door open. He knew we were there. [He] said ‘f--- that, I’m going’,” Horsburgh replied.

Bush left his car bogged in the drain and hitchhiked home. When he returned the next day with help to retrieve his car, it was gone, and he called police to ask if they knew where it was.

The next day, June 29, the two officers arrested Bush at his home and later charged him with recklessly exposing an emergency service worker to harm.

The prosecution said Horsburgh had arrested the man under false pretences and later witnessed Evans providing a false statement.