Peter Dutton has given 2 greatly different versions of why he left the Queensland police force in 1999 which points to Dutton lying to the court in 2000 trying to get $250,000 compensation because he had “low confidence in driving”. 

The problem for Dutton is he gave different reasons on the ABC’s Four Corners show on Monday (26/9/22) where he said he left the police force because he needed to focus on his family business of childcare centres, and he wanted to go into politics.

The below video shows Peter Dutton giving contradictory reasons on Four Corners (26/9/22) for leaving the police force:

Peter Dutton left the QLD police force after 9 years

Dutton gave one version of why he left the Police force to the media in 2001 but he told a court in 2000 another reason as reported below by the ABC in 2019.

The ABC reported:

“In a single line in a Courier Mail story in October 2001, it was reported that Dutton had resigned from the force to help the family business.”

But the article goes on to give another reason that Dutton told a court in 2000:

While in the police force Dutton suffered concussion, laceration, bruises, abrasions, as well as injuries to his cervical and thoracic spine, right shoulder and left knee. That was from just a single incident: the moment that led to his resignation from the Queensland Police Service.

According to court documents lodged in 2000 by the solicitor of a “Peter Craig Dutton” — one also sharing a birthday with the Minister — the incident occurred on August 4, 1998.

Dutton was a Detective Senior Constable in the Covert Surveillance Unit at the time.

According to these documents, he was sitting in an unmarked Mazda 626 outside a fast food establishment in the south-western Brisbane suburb of Goodna. The then-27-year-old observed an escaped prisoner leave the store in a Holden Commodore.

Given instructions to intercept the man, he followed and was joined by at least one other police vehicle. Dutton pursued the speeding vehicle and attempted to direct it to stop. By this stage it had begun driving erratically.

A few kilometres from the fast food restaurant, the car turned off into an unpaved road and made a sharp turn in a dusty car park. In pursuit, Dutton’s car clipped a concrete garden edge. It was thrown onto its side and slid into a building. Dutton’s head “struck the side window or side pillar of the Mazda which rendered him unconscious” and he “sustained a laceration behind the right ear”.

He was kept under observation at Ipswich Hospital for a “number of hours”. In the week following, a bedridden Dutton experienced “severe headaches”. These eventually settled with time, but the effects of the incident lingered.

He sought $250,000 plus interest from the insurance company of the escaped prisoner, arguing his injuries were the man’s fault. This included money for future economic loss — “[he] will have difficulty in jobs involved lifting, bending, twisting or squatting”. He reported suffering from pain in his back. And he claimed he received “gratuitous domestic assistance” from his then-girlfriend and his mother, including cleaning, washing, ironing, and cooking.

In 2005, he discontinued the claim. The defence solicitor noted in 2003 “significant changes have occurred to the plaintiff’s employment and personal circumstances”.

It’s not clear whether any money changed hands. The documents remain available from the court registry. They contain the best explanation yet as to why Peter Dutton left the force.

He “resigned from the Queensland Police Service on 30 July 1999 due to the fact his confidence in driving was low”. (Click here to read more)

He resigned because “his confidence in driving was low”. I’m not buying it. Dutton told the media in 2001 one reason for resigning, then he told Four Corners on Monday night two reasons for resigning, and he told the court in 2000 a totally different reason.

As I said in the above video if Dutton had told the court in 2000 that he left the police force in 1999 because he wanted to focus on the family business and go into politics, he would not have had any chance of getting $250,000 compensation so he made up the lie “his confidence in driving was low”.

Peter Dutton needs to make a full disclosure regarding the court case as to whether he received any compensation or if had to pay the insurer’s costs because the claim was frivolous etc. And why hasn’t Dutton ever spoken about his low confidence in driving as a reason why he left the police force?

Please use Twitter, Facebook, email and the other buttons below and help promote this article.

Kangaroo Court of Australia is an independent website and is reliant on donations to keep publishing so please click on the Patreon button below and support independent journalism.

If you would like to support via PayPal use the button below or for other donation options click here to go to the Donations page.

Thank you for your support.

For the KCA t-shirt shop click here.

Follow Kangaroo Court of Australia via email. Enter your email address below and click on the follow button.

Leave this field empty if you’re human: