Rotorua man who impersonated police officer fails in bid to appeal convictions

A Rotorua man who was convicted of two counts of impersonating a police officer has lost his bid to have his convictions quashed. The young man, who used flashing lights to try to pull over a car in one incident and broke up a fight claiming to be an off-duty police officer in another, was found with a car similar to an unmarked police car that had flashing lights installed and was festooned with aerials. Kelly Makiha reports.

Luke Irvine dreamed of working in emergency services.

He had a car that had a “striking resemblance” to an unmarked police car and was equipped with flashing amber lights on the front grill and rear and front windscreens.

It also had aerials around the car and a police-style radio installed in the vehicle’s console.

At his home he had a police scanner. He had become known to emergency services for arriving at the callouts they attended.

Court documents recently released detail the case of the now 21-year-old from Rotorua, who has taken his case to the High Court at Rotorua to appeal his convictions by Rotorua District Court Judge Greg Hollister-Jones on January 18 this year.

Judge Hollister-Jones convicted Irvine after he earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of impersonating a police officer in 2022 and 2023. He was fined $800.

On May 16, Irvine appealed his convictions because it was his perception his “dream” of employment with emergency services or private security firms would be terminated if he had convictions.

In a judgment dated May 17, Justice Pheroze Jagose said Irvine suffered from type 1 diabetes and poor mental health. He was employed full-time as a loss prevention worker by a national retail chain, working to prevent thefts and shoplifting at the store in which he worked.

He said Irvine understood his dreams of working in emergency services were curtailed by his controlled diabetes. Justice Jagoze said he also understood Irvine’s applications for employment with the Department of Corrections and as a private security officer with other firms had already been unsuccessful “at least in part” because he had to disclose the active charges he was facing at the time.

He had also failed to be accepted for training as a police officer, to his “personal devastation”, and after that happened he became known to emergency services for arriving at incidents they attended.

What he did

On April 11, 2022, Irvine, who was 19 at the time, was stopped by police about 7.30pm after they saw him operating his vehicle’s flashing amber lights. Police considered he was attempting to stop another vehicle using the lights, the judgment said.

Just over a year later on July 24, 2023, Irvine was on Amohau St in Rotorua’s central city when he saw people fighting on a grass verge.

He pulled into a nearby carpark and ran to intervene in the fight. He told a security guard called in to help and a police officer who later attended that he was an off-duty police officer.

When the police officer questioned his status, his responses were initially aggressive and defensive but he was then apologetic.

A third charge was withdrawn, the judgment said.

The judgment noted Judge Hollister-Jones said at Irvine’s sentencing in January that Irvine didn’t seek to justify his offending, acknowledged it was wrong and it arose because of his desire to help people, which he felt was “like a compulsion”.

Irvine tried to get a discharge without conviction at sentencing but the judgment noted Judge Hollister-Jones said at sentencing the court would not hide matters that gave rise to charges from bodies that had a right to know.

The judgment noted it was the judge’s view any emergency services Irvine applied to join in future had a right to know about the two charges, because those services dealt with vulnerable people and they exercised power.

“The defendant’s offending evidences obsessive behaviour and poor judgment and it is critical that if you want a job with an organisation like the police, Fire and Emergency New Zealand or as a private investigator, that those organisations know the full facts about the person,” Judge Hollister-Jones said at sentencing.

Can Irvine still achieve his dream job?

In the appeal judgment, Justice Jagose said convictions and discharges were both likely to be requested in any police vetting check.

He said it was “less resolute” that Irvine’s dream of working in emergency services or as a security guard was over.

He said the fact Fire and Emergency NZ didn’t employ anyone who had a conviction in the last seven years was a “guide only” and each application was assessed on merit. Hato Hone St John’s applicants should have a “clean criminal record” only as a “key skill” and its core values of having “open minds” suggested a wider appreciation of potential candidates, Justice Jagose said in his judgment.

Dishonesty convictions for anyone wanting to get a licence under the Private Security Personnel and Privates Investigators Act were “informative”, not determinative, Justice Jagose said.

“Accordingly, I do not consider the consequences of Mr Irvine’s convictions are out of all proportion to the gravity of his offending. They instead are condign. The judge did not err. There is no miscarriage of justice.”

The appeal was dismissed.

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.