YOU wouldn’t want to run out of fuel if working the Wangaratta police night shift a couple of years ago.
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Then the only option was the APCO station then owned by former copper Paul Dale.
Problem was, police were under strict orders to not have any contact with him.
The only exception was when Mr Dale had to report to the station as a condition of his bail over 12 charges of giving false evidence at two Australian Crime Commission examinations. He was later cleared of all charges.
The anecdote is told in Mr Dale’s book Disgraced? by retired detective Gary Thayer, who was the detective sergeant in charge of the then criminal investigation branch when he worked in Wangaratta for 18 months as a junior officer.
Mr Thayer tells of how he had spoken to a lot of police who had sympathy for Mr Dale, but how their jobs were “on the line” if they spoke to him.
“Not only that, no police car was allowed to be filled at Paul’s petrol station, which was the only 24-hour petrol station in town,” he says.
“They had to drive to Albury to get petrol after hours.”