Former AFP Protective Services Officer sentenced for false statements

A former protective services officer, Daniel Robert David Jones, made false declarations in relation to an application for a security clearance required to work for the Australian Federal Police. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) (CDPP) prosecuted Mr Jones and on 15 July 2024 he pleaded guilty to and was sentenced in the ACT Magistrates Court.

This is the first occasion the CDPP has prosecuted an offence contrary to section 137.1A(1) of the Criminal Code.

The matter

In 2019 Mr Jones made false declarations on an application for a security clearance when he applied for employment with the AFP. In the security clearance questionnaire, Mr Jones failed to disclose his prior use and possession of illicit drugs or substances, his relationship or criminal association with a person convicted of serious drug offences in Queensland, his knowledge of that person’s charges, his knowledge of that person’s drug trafficking operation and participation in a criminal group and his association with a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang. 

Mr Jones was granted a security clearance and was subsequently employed as a Protective Services Officer within the AFP, stationed at Parliament House in Canberra.

After a police raid in Queensland in 2017, which uncovered about 7.3kg of the amphetamine MDA that was tied to a contact of Mr Jones, a person who was later convicted and sentenced to jail. Police found there had been 1305 calls or texts between the pair’s phones.

In 2018, Taskforce Nemesis was investigating an ACT Comanchero member for alleged drug dealing, they found he had missed calls on his phone from Mr Jones, who was saved in his contacts as ‘Danny Jones’.

In 2023, police intercepted a conversation between Mr Jones and another member of the AFP, in which Mr Jones said he was able to buy a house because he was “a drug dealer”, then laughed. Later that year, police also intercepted a call in which he talked about recently being offered cannabis. During an AFP investigation, an undercover police officer spoke to Mr Jones, pretending to be interested in joining the AFP and asked what she had to declare when applying to join. Mr Jones advised her “To be honest, just think about it, like, smartly. Like, no one’s going to f-ing know,” he told her. The AFP arrested Mr Jones on 12 December 2023. 

The CDPP laid charges against Mr Jones for:

• one count of aggravated provision of false or misleading information, contrary to section 137.1A(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth); and
• one count of intentionally making a false statement in a statutory declaration, contrary to section 11 of the Statutory Declarations Act 1959 (Cth).

The AFP terminated Mr Jones’s employment.

Sentence

The maximum penalty for an offence contrary to section 137.1A(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth) is five years’ imprisonment. The maximum penalty for an offence contrary to section 11 of the Statutory Declarations Act 1959 (Cth) is four years’ imprisonment.

The sentencing magistrate identified that it was a serious example of the offending because of the fact it exposed the AFP to reputational damage and it prevented the AFP from making a proper assessment as to whether Mr Jones was a suitable person and whether the community and the AFP could place trust in him and his integrity.

The magistrate also noted that the community has a strong interest in ensuring and having confidence in the AFP employing people of high integrity. The AFP and the community place high value on the integrity of those they employ and place high value on the organisation and the community's ability to trust those persons. In the circumstances, general deterrence plays the most important role in this type of offending. The sentence imposed sends a message that making false declarations may result in imprisonment.

Mr Jones was sentenced to seven months’ imprisonment for breaching the Criminal Code and five months’ imprisonment, served concurrently for breaching the Statutory Declarations Act.

Mr Jones received a total sentence of seven months’ imprisonment and was released immediately on a 12 month recognisance release order pursuant to section 20(1)(b) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth). The sentence took into account the 30 days Mr Jones spent in custody as a result of breaching his bail.

Relevant material

AFP officer's lies about links to criminals, drugs ended illustrious career