By Hollie Harris
A POMONA driver recently tested a Cooroy police officer’s patience insisting he could not legally be breathalysed until he was shown a ‘proclamation certificate’ signed by the Queen.
The video of the conversation was recorded by the driver when he was stopped on Elm Street, Cooroy, on November 10 and shows him demanding to know if he was under arrest while repeatedly refusing to blow into the breathalyser.
The clip has since received millions of views online.
“You can be under arrest if you want,” the officer informs the man, while explaining that drivers are legally required to provide samples for road side breath tests.
“Has it been through the Upper House, the Lower House, and she’s (the Queen) enacted it?” The driver asks.
“Am I under arrest or am I free to go?” he repeatedly asks.
After several minutes of engaging with the driver, the officer tells him he will be following him up and asks where he lives.
“I live in my body. I’m a man, I sleep in a bed,” the driver answers.
Public reactions have been mixed on Facebook with some applauding the man for standing his ground and questioning the law but most comments have praised the officer for his patience and labelled the man “a tool”.
“I’m so sick of people showing no respect for police officers. Yes he may have been sober – just do the breath test and move along instead of acting like a complete moron,” was one of the comments.
Many comments said that they didn’t understand why the man was not arrested for refusing to be tested.
The driver refers to Queensland having a unicameral parliamentary system, meaning it only has one House of Parliament and that the Queen’s representative, the Governor, must sign off legislation passed in Queensland.
Police tracked the 33-year-old Pomona man down four days later, and he was ordered to appear in a Noosa Court next month.
A police spokesman said he would have to answer to charges over his failure to provide a breath sample.
He has been ordered to appear in court on 13 December.
Refusing a roadside breath test in Queensland is punishable by 40 demerit points, a fine of $4000 or six months in jail.
The video has been seen almost three million times since Monday.
