Police are appealing for witnesses following a suspicious house fire in Wagga Wagga yesterday.

Just before 9pm (Wednesday 6 April 2016), emergency services were called to Evans Street after reports of a house on fire.

Officers from Fire & Rescue NSW attended and extinguished the blaze which completely destroyed the house.

Police from Wagga Wagga Local Area Command were also in attendance and established a crime scene.

The house was unoccupied at the time and initial inquiries suggest the fire was deliberately lit.

Investigators are appealing for anyone with information about the incident to contact them at Wagga Wagga Police Station on (02) 6922 2599 or Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.

A 28-year-old male motorcyclist from Parramatta was airlifted to Canberra Hospital after hitting a guardrail on the Hume Highway on Tuesday morning.

The single motorbike accident occurred at 5.15am on Tuesday in the northbound lane of the highway near Oolong, just hours after Operation Tortoise (the state’s Easter road safety campaign) had concluded. It was the only serious accident in the local area over the holiday period.

Operation Tortoise, which commenced at one minute past midnight on Thursday and ended at 11.59pm on Monday, targeted drink and drug driving, speeding, fatigue, seatbelt use, mobile-phone use and other forms of dangerous driving.

A spokesperson from Goulburn Police said officers were pleased overall with how motorists behaved on the roads in the region over the Easter long weekend.

More than 3000 random breath tests were conducted in Yass with two local men charged with drink driving. Officers from Yass Highway Patrol also issued just over 100 tickets for speeding and four fines for seatbelt related offences.

Police stopped a 36-year-old male provisional P1 driver doing 145km/h on the Hume Highway near Gunning on Easter Sunday.

In NSW, provisional P1 drivers have a 90km/h limit attached to their licence. The 36-year-old had his licence suspended on the spot and his number plates were also suspended, which means his car will be unregistered for three months. He was also handed a hefty fine for more than $2000.

Two more P1 drivers – a 21-year-old male and 25 year-old male, both from Sydney – were detected driving more than 30km/h over their speed limits on the Hume Highway during the operation. A provisional P2 driver from Sydney was also clocked travelling 134km/h on the Hume Highway.

In Yass, officers charged two men with drink driving. A 24-year-old local man was stopped by police in town at 7.30pm on Thursday. He blew 0.050 and was charged with low-range drink driving. A 74-year-old Yass man was also charged with mid-range drink driving after registering a blood alcohol reading of 0.101 at 5.30pm on Saturday. Both men had their licences suspended and will face court in April.

A 28-year-old man has been airlifted to Canberra Hospital in a serious condition after he came off his motorcycle east of Yass on Tuesday morning.

One northbound lane on the Hume Highway at Jerrawa was closed after the crash which occurred at 5.40am, but has since reopened.

It is understood the man crashed down an embankment near Hillgrove Road.

The Snowy Hydro SouthCare helicopter transported the man in a stable but serious condition to Canberra hospital.

A spokeswoman for NSW Ambulance said the man suffered a suspected fractured arm.

A man has been charged after a cannabis crop was located in Gundagai today.

About 4pm today (Saturday 26 March 2016), police from Cootamundra Local Area Command had cause to attend an address on Brungle Road, Gundagai.

Inside the address they allegedly located a large cannabis crop, as well as over 500 grams of cannabis oil, a drug utensil, and an amount of unsecured ammunition.

A 58-year-old man at the address was issued with a Future Court Attendance Notice for the offence of cultivate prohibited plant, possess prohibited drug, and not keep ammunition safe.

He is expected to appear at Gundagai Local Court on 13 May 2015.

IN A CASE THAT WILL SEND shivers down your spine, a Traffic and Highway Patrol officer stationed at Gundagai in NSW has faked infringement notices to boost his statistics and protect his rank, Wagga Court has heard.

The officer, 39-year-old Stephen Alan Saltmarsh, pleaded guilty to 18 counts of unauthorised modification of restricted data in the NSW Police Force computer system (known as COPS) and three counts of knowingly making a false statement.

Saltmarsh was scheduled to be sentenced on March 21 although one of his options was to make an application to have the charges dismissed under Section 32 of the Mental Health (Forensic Provisions) Act.

Undisputed facts tendered to the court revealed Saltmarsh repeatedly entered false information into the police computer at the Gundagai police station between May 28 and July 18 last year.

Saltmarsh entered names of people he purported to have booked who were from other countries, including China, Vietnam, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Thailand and South Korea, claiming to have picked them up on the Hume Highway for traffic offences that included speeding, driving in the wrong lane, inappropriate use of high beam, minor vehicle defects, driving an unregistered vehicle and not wearing a seat belt.

The offences came to light on July 30 when the Office of State Revenue contacted police to notify them of discrepancies.

It was found that in nearly 20 cases, there was no record of the people booked by Saltmarsh having entered Australia and the ACT registration numbers of their vehicles either didn’t exist or belonged to other vehicles. There were no in-car recordings of the stops, although there were recordings of vehicle stops before and after.

Saltmarsh was interviewed and charged on November 24.

This brings up an interesting point: if, was we are regularly told, there is no quota for police officers issuing traffic infringement notices, why would a Highway patrolman feel the need to increase his numbers to protect his rank? And if there is a quota, how does this contribute to saving lives and reducing the road toll? In any case, we have often commented that police officers are under increasing pressure, made worse by being seen by the public as revenue collectors rather than performing a public service. Our sympathies go out to Leading Senior Constable Alan Saltmarsh, even though his actions were clearly unprofessional, and to his long-suffering colleagues. They deserve better.

TRAFFIC was reduced to a crawl on the Hume Highway at Carrick, about 12km north of Goulburn, after a small truck fire about 3pm today.

Traffic queued as far back as the Towrang turn off, about 1.5km south.

RFS and RMS traffic control crews were on scene to clean up the mess, which was understood to be caused by a fuel leak.

A small fire also broke out, but was quickly extinguished with fire fighting equipment.

The driver of the truck, which was hauling an excavator, is believed to be unhurt.

One northbound lane is still closed so that the truck can be moved to safer ground.

Drivers are urged to slow down and take caution. The other northbound lane is open to traffic

A man has been charged after a search warrant in Wagga Wagga uncovered a firearm and drugs yesterday.
About 10.20am (Thursday 24 March 2016), police from Wagga Wagga Local Area Command stopped a vehicle as it left a home on Elanora Place, Glenfield Park, and spoke with the 34-year-old male driver.

Officers then executed a search warrant at the man’s address on Elanora Place.

During the search warrant, police allegedly located a SKS rifle, ammunition, knuckle dusters, and drugs, believed to be ‘ice’.

The man was arrested and taken to Wagga Wagga Police Station.

He was charged with possess unauthorised prohibited firearm, possess unregistered firearm, not keep firearm safely, possess ammunition, holder of category A or B licence not have approved storage, possess, supply or make explosive for unlawful purpose, possess or use a prohibited weapon without permit, and deal with proceeds of crime.

He was refused bail to appear at Wagga Wagga Local Court today (Friday 25 March 2016).

A two-truck smash has caused hundreds of litres of diesel to spill onto the Hume Highway near Bowning, firefighters say.

One person sustained minor injuries when the two northbound b-double trucks crashed about 6.30am on Wednesday morning, NSW Police said.

Firefighters are working to contain up to 400 litres of spilt fuel, just south of the Lachlan Valley Way turnoff.

Drivers are advised to reduce speed and exercise caution although traffic is flowing freely.

In a separate incident, a large amount of fuel spilled onto the highway near Goulburn after two trucks collided about 2.30pm.

Northbound traffic was delayed after the vehicles crashed and one truck caught fire near Tiyces Lane at Boxers Creek.

No-one was injured. Police had left the scene by about 3.30pm.

A man was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after his car collided with a truck on the Hume Highway near Goulburn, sparking lengthy delays for northbound motorists on Monday afternoon.

Emergency services crews and a police crash investigation team were called to the scene of the crash about 2.30pm.

Police said the car’s male driver was airlifted to Canberra Hospital in a serious condition.

The driver of the truck would undergo mandatory blood and urine testing.

Northbound lanes of the highway near the Hume Street turn-off were closed for at least two hours, and police put a contra-flow lane in place to let motorists through and ease delays.

Drivers were urged to avoid the area due to heavy traffic, with queues stretching about four kilometres south.

All lanes were reopened by 6pm but traffic in the area remained congested.