A WINERY tour in the Gisborne-Macedon area with colleagues that became a drunken and aggressive "day from hell" for a Victorian policeman has had a sobering conclusion in a Melbourne courtroom.
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A magistrate who heard how drunk Jonathan Moss had got described the former senior constable as "blotto" and "as full as a state school".
The magistrate Tim Walsh was told that Moss started drinking chardonnay and shiraz at 9am on September 11 last year, and more than eight hours later returned to a suburban police station.
Prosecutor Temple Saville said that Moss later assaulted an acting sergeant in a car after the colleague agreed to drive him home.
Ms Saville told Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday that Moss, then performing temporary duties with the Brimbank crime investigation unit and a member for four years, insulted, threatened and injured acting Sergeant Matthew Moohan.
Moss, 34, who pleaded guilty to a charge of recklessly causing injury, ended his career with Victoria Police on Thursday.
Mr Walsh told Moss that the consequences of the incident "almost brought a tear to me eye" as it was "almost a tragedy" that such a prospective stellar career as a police officer had been ended.
"It saddens me this ended up such as it has," he said after earlier describing the incident as "one day from hell ... one blot on [Moss's] life".
He found there was no "purpose" served in convicting Moss, who he fined $500.