Police admit training bungle behind ticket issued to innocent Wellington bus driver

Wellington bus driver Dave Christensen's bemusement turned to anger after calling the Ministry of Justice 11 times to dismiss a ticket issued for using a cellphone in Porirua while driving a Holden station wagon, at a time he was actually driving a bus from Otaki to Naenae. Photo / Carjam

A man was ticketed for a driving offence in a car which was being driven by police recruits during a bungled training exercise.

But trying to clear his name has been a harrowing experience for Wellington man David Christensen who has labelled the month-long saga "an absolute nightmare".

Not only did he not commit the offence, after a bit of digging he discovered the car at the centre of the offence - driving with a cellphone - belonged to the Royal New Zealand Police Training College.

Intervention since from the Herald has resulted in a swift and sincere apology from road policing's top cop.

Christensen said he got a shock when he received the ticket for the offence, which was listed as occurring on Eskdale Rd, Porirua, at 2.54pm on Friday, December 1, last year.

Baffling the bus driver was the fact he was nowhere near Porirua at that time and he wasn't driving a Holden station wagon.

He had in fact just picked up 45 excited teenagers from Otaki and was taking them to a camp in Naenae.

"The first I knew of this was April 9 when I got a letter which told me I have an unpaid fine.

Christensen knew that he did he not commit the offence, and after a bit of digging discovered the car at the centre of the offence - driving with a cellphone - belonged to the Royal New Zealand Police Training College. Image / Supplied

"It was written on December 1 of 2017 at 2.54pm."

Christensen said he'd never driven a Holden.

"The Holden rego is not mine, I don't own a Holden and I never will. I am a Toyota man."

He got on the phone to the Ministry of Justice - the organisation listed on the ticket as to ring with queries - who said police refused to dismiss the fine.

He tried 10 more times without success before talking to the Herald, exasperated.

Christensen told Justice staff if it was him driving the police car he should have been charged with theft of a car - not driving with a cellphone.

"Why didn't they charge me for stealing a police car? Is that not a more serious crime?"

He figured the officer had somehow punched in the wrong driver licence credentials, but then remembered he handed back a temporary licence to a policewoman after being pulled over last year.

Up until yesterday, he'd been told the matter was being brought before the courts.

"It has been an absolute nightmare."

Superintendent Steve Greally, National Manager Road Policing, said the infringement notice had been "accidentally issued in error during training".

"The ticket was accidentally created in the 'live' OnDuty app as opposed to an education version of the app. Police is looking into how this error occurred and will be following up to ensure this does not happen again."

Greally said the 11 phone calls Christensen made were to the Ministry of Justice and not police. However, Christensen said he simply rang the number listed on the ticket for any queries.

Greally said they contacted Christensen this morning to apologise for the mistake and to let him know the ticket and demerit points will be waived.

"Mistakes do happen from time to time, and when they do, we work to remedy them as quickly as possible. On this occasion, an error at the start of a process has caused significant inconvenience to a member of the public and for this we sincerely apologise, and thank him for his understanding."