Ben Atherton

Including experience gained whilst being posted at and serving at multiple regional WA locations including:

• Albany (Great southern District - October 2015 - December 2017
• Broome (Kimberley District December - 2017 - December 2019)
• Narrogin (Lower Wheatbelt District - December 2019 - November 2022)
• Albany (Great Southern District - November 2022 - current)

All aspects of General Duty policing pertaining to the role of a Patrol/Inquiry Officer, including but not limited to;

• Responding to emergency ‘000’ calls requesting Police emergency assistance from all members of the community.
• Enforcing current criminal and traffic laws and investigating cases with varying degrees of complexity and required investigative actions.
• Submitting regular incident reports, following Police attendances, reflecting content as reported to Police and all subsequent investigative procedures from thereon.
• Preserving crime scenes, gathering evidence whilst maintaining continuity/integrity of such for future prosecution purposes.
• At the conclusion of such investigations, preparing detailed and accurate prosecution briefs for offences proffered upon the accused/alleged offender and referring the matter before the relevant courts (Magistrate and/or District court / State Administrative Tribunal).
• Where necessary, upon receipt of a plea of ‘Not-Guilty’, the requirement of the preparation of detailed evidential disclosure to be compiled and referred to the relevant prosecuting department, which would often result in subsequent court/SAT appearances wherein I would give evidence under oath in support of the prosecution.
• Promoted and maintained good community relations within all aspects of the community.
• Emergency management experience pertaining to all aspects of reported emergency incidents. Vehicle/highway crashes/bushfires/floods/cyclones/etc including experience in working with multi-agency operations toward achieving a common goal for the benefit of the respective community.
• Rendered assistance to accident victims and other persons involved in the aforementioned incident types, requiring me to provide emergency first-aid for physical injuries and medical crises in lieu of St John Ambulance attending.
• Submitting and monitoring of intelligence incident reports detailing alleged criminal activity, civil proceedings and varied incidents within the community.
• Partnered with team members (both WAPOL and other Governmental departments) to implement service initiatives and achieve overall team objectives for the good and service of the community.
• Developed and maintained excellent organisational skills along with the ongoing requirement to prioritise such in order to maintain a professional and proficient service throughout my working duties.

Upon migrating to Western Australia from the United Kingdom in March 2014, I worked as a self-employed bricklayer in the northern suburbs of Perth.

• Completing all aspects of bricklaying pertaining to residential housing for Dale Alcock Homes.
• Working as part of a team (2 bricklayers & 1 labourer).
• Communicated with clients to provide project estimates regarding materials and labor.
• Adhered to current WHS laws and regulations with reference to personal protective equipment and usage of tools and machinery. This included me obtaining my White Card qualification.
• Calculating required building materials.
• Interpreting scaled architectural building plans and building-to accordingly.

Role description

CTSL were a privately owned business whose primary service was to supply fuels such as Kerosene and agricultural diesel to remote parts of the UK, (where gas-mains did not exist) for the sake of heating/agricultural usage etc.

The remediation team became a subsidiary company whose creation was to undertake insurance work projects that occurred where such fuel reserve-tanks and/or heating systems had failed, resulting in such fuel leaking into nearby building fabrics and ground underneath. Often resulting in such home/work areas becoming inhabitable.

The role of Remedial Operative was to undertake such remedial project-works to clean up the leaks and included but was not limited to:

• Working away from home (weekly stints DIDO) at remote parts of the United Kingdom (where no gas-main services existed).
• Working as part of a team, toward a desired goal pertaining to specific successful remedial projects.
• Continual liaison with all levels of the organisation, external stakeholders (insurance companies) and local shire building-control and/or environmental officers.
• Experience in using all sizes of excavator/dumper truck and various plant/machinery pertaining to the remedial works.
• Experience in performing all hands-on processes with removal/replacement of ground and/or building fabrics as specified.
• Installation of biological reticulation systems where chemical bacteria could be later-introduced to imported areas of ground and/or masonry to treat kerosene affected areas.
• A thorough understanding of using personal protective equipment pertaining to the role and complying with all OSH regulations.

Whilst operating as a small sized general building company based in Preston (NW of England). Completed all aspects of general building work including:

• Bricklaying
• Concreting
• Groundwork/Earthworks
• Landscape gardening
• Project management (small-scale residential)
• Sub-contractor provision (other trades & labour)
• Employer of 2 other permanent full-time tradesmen, 1 apprentice and 2 labourers.
• Completed multiple building projects for both my own personal clients/customers and also larger contractors in the Preston, Lancashire area.
• Done so on a self-employed basis requiring all associated administrative requirements to be maintained personally, gaining great experience in record-keeping, taxation auditing, Occupational Health and Safety laws and employment rights/regulations.

Ceased trading in 2012 due to the economic consequences of the Global Financial Crisis within Europe. Causing my family and I to plan to emigrate to Australia.