Thomas John Collis failed to even turn up for work on 16 occasions and was criticised by a Community Corrections officer for his attitude.

“He has been totally unreliable the whole way through,” Merrilyn Bullock told Albury Local Court this week in asking that the order be revoked.

To make matters even worse for Collis, a warrant was issued for his arrest because of a no-show.

He turned up on the first day his case was mentioned, as pointed out by magistrate Rodney Brender, but couldn’t be found the following day when it was again on the court list.

The original charges for which Collis, 26, was ordered to do 250 hours of unpaid work were false report resulting in a police investigation and two counts of attempt to dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception

That related to his decision to go to the Albury police station on March 17, 2017, to report having been robbed while he walked along Stanley Street.

He claimed a man armed with a large knife threatened him and then stole his wallet. Collis then gave police a detailed description of the fictitious offender.

It followed knock-backs from Centrelink for emergency relief payments.

A report put to the court revealed that Collis had completed just 35.3 of the 250 hours.

“He said it was ‘too far to walk to the race club’,” the report said.

Collis was placed on the order on November 6. 

Regarding the original offence, Collis told Albury detectives how the robber had pulled out a hunting knife and held the tip of the blade about 20 to 30 centimetres from his chest.

That report resulted in general duties officers being given the job of patrolling the Stanley Street area, along with canvassing by two detectives.

Collis came up with the false scenario based on media reports of an armed robbery in Stanley Street weeks before.