Cop 'gave uniform to car thieves'

Karis Rewa Charnley. Photo / NZ Herald.

A policewoman charged with stealing a car and impersonating an officer allegedly gave her co-accused a full police uniform, an impound notice pad and details of where to find the vehicle.

And it has been revealed that Karis Rewa Charnley, 39, allegedly helped to fill out a fake impound notice using her ex-supervisor's details and told her son to burn the pad after the car had been pinched.

Charnley, a constable on the North Shore until she was suspended from duty last year on unrelated disciplinary matters, is charged with the theft of a Mitsubishi Evo worth $11,000 and with using a police uniform in circumstances likely to lead a person to believe she was a police employee.

It is understood Charnley was not physically involved in stealing the car, but allegedly supplied her police uniform to those who were.

She is also facing a charge of assaulting the car's owner, Jerome Kino, with a spanner.

Charnley, who has been suspended from duty since last year because of unrelated disciplinary and employment issues, has denied all charges and will appear in the North Shore District Court for a defended hearing in October.

However, the man charged alongside her was jailed this week after admitting his part in the incident.

Cameron Anthony Ross, 35, was arrested in March when police located him in a stolen car in Whangarei. When they searched the car they found a pair of police epaulettes with Charnley's identification number on them.

New details about Charnley's alleged involvement with Ross and the theft were revealed yesterday.

The police summary, released to the Herald, outlines how the pair allegedly worked together to steal the Evo and what Charnley did to hide evidence.

Police allege that on February 8, Ross picked up a police uniform, a pair of police overalls and a police impound notice pad from Charnley.

"Together they filled out the impound notice using the identification of Charnley's ex-supervisor, who has left the police," the summary said.

"Ross then dressed up in full police uniform and gave the overalls to an associate to put on ... The vehicle was targeted as it was a show vehicle and Charnley knew the location of the owners."

Ross and his associate, not Charnley, went to Mr Kino's home in Devonport. He was in Hamilton at the time but the Evo was at the house.

His mother answered the door and fell for the pair's story about being police.

"The victim, believing that Ross and his associate were police officers, handed over the car and was given the impound notice that had been falsely written out. The vehicle was then driven away," the summary said.

On February 11, Charnley allegedly met one of her sons at Ross' house in Stillwater, north of urban Auckland.

"There she gave her son a bag containing her uniform and asked him to take the uniform to her home address and burn the impound book. A few hours later Charnley got her father to uplift the bag from her son and take it home."

Parts of the car - including the motor, bonnet, wheels and seats - were found at a Paremoremo property in late February.

In the North Shore District Court on Wednesday, Ross was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment for stealing the car, and three months for impersonating an officer. The terms are concurrent.

It is not the first time Ross has been before the courts. In 1999, armed with a pistol, he held up three takeaway shops in 10 days while on parole for previous robberies.

According to the police summary in the latest case, Charnley formed a relationship with Ross in 2010.

Charnley, a mother of three, featured in a television show about police recruits at training college.

In February, she married Steven Sawers, a 26-year-old fisherman with a string of convictions including threatening to kill police officers and stealing a vehicle.