Jonathon Gow, 24, lands in Dubbo Local Court for producing false documents

Jonathon Gow, a 24-year-old man from Murrayfield Drive, was at Dubbo Local Court on Wednesday, August 16 where he pleaded guilty to knowingly producing false and misleading documents and breaching the condition of an examiners authority.

According to court documents Gow, who owns and operates North Dubbo Motors and is a certified vehicle safety examiner, was found by Strike Force MIRAM.

The strike force is a professional standards command investigation into the misconduct of serving NSW Police employees and other related people.

A co-accused, who is a civilian employee of the NSW Police force, had his phone lawfully intercepted showing a number of incriminating text messages between himself and a friend over the weekend of April 14 to 16, 2023.

The co-accused travelled from Newcastle to Orange when he realised his car was unregistered. Making several attempts to register the vehicle, he was unsuccessful due to it being a weekend and after hours.

According to the court documents on April 16 he contacted a friend and explained the situation and asked if he knew anyone that could help.

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His friend responded, "Today, yeah? Do you wanna ring up my [person]? I'll send you his number and he might be able to get onto John [Gow]. He's a mechanic in Dubbo...".

After receiving a phone number, the co-accused sent a text message asking for help with his pink slip.

After some back and forth, the person replied.

"I do know John, he's a dodgy c**t in Dubbo and he's a good mate with [person] and does them. He will definitely do it if you can get onto him," they wrote.

"If [person] rings and asks him, he will definitely do it I reckon. He's a dodgy c**t on the best of days."

According to the court documents, later that same afternoon the co-accused was told "John can't do anything today, but he will be able to do it tomorrow. You might have to send a photo of rego papers, man".

The co-accused sent pictures of his registration papers to someone, who sent them along to Gow.

The co-accused was then asked for the number of kilometres his car had done, as Gow needed to enter them into the system.

He was then told it would cost $100 to get the pink slip done, which the co-accused agreed to.

According to court documents, at 2.25pm on April 17 an e-safety report was completed and uploaded for motor vehicle registration by Gow.

On that document under the heading 'Examiners Certification' a declaration of truth was signed.

The co-accused was then heard speaking with an unknown person on the phone saying, "I paid $100 and he didn't look at it he just ticked it off on his computer for me".

On June 21, 2023 investigators attached to the Strike Force arrested Gow at North Dubbo Motors before he was taken to Dubbo Police Station.

Gow's solicitor Tim Cullenward told the court during sentencing his client's personal certification was suspended pending further proceedings and it was likely to be "lost imminently".

"His record doesn't assist him and this matter comes under professional indiscretions," he said.

"He tells me despite conversation he never received any money for this and it was a friend of a friend ... he saw photos and issued a pink slip not knowing if the car was road worthy and that could have been a terrible outcome."

Magistrate Gary Wilson told Gow his solicitor had said it all.

"This is a serious offence and can have significant repercussions instead of doing what you should have done," he said.

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