A Police officer accused of falsifying a moving violations ticket has been found not guilty.

In a case that lasted three days in Magistrates' Court, the court heard how Anderson Cumberbatch allegedly falsified a moving violations document in November 2004.

Mr. Cumberbatch, who was suspended from the service, pleaded not guilty to creating a false document and attaching it to the complainant's file to pass it off as valid.

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner said the crux of the case lay in whether or not the signature on the ticket was false. On Wednesday, Mr. Warner said he could not be sure that the person who signed the ticket was Mr. Cumberbatch and not the complainant, Jocelyn Powell's signature.

"I am unsure who wrote the signature on the third document.

"I do not accept Jocelyn Powell's evidence that there was no further meeting with the defendant after she signed the second document," Mr. Warner said. "I feel sure that he did not write Jocelyn Powell's signature. "I am not satisfied that the defendant did make a false statement and thus that element is not made up and thus I cannot find him guilty of count one. I also do not feel satisfied that he allegedly and knowingly utter a false document as it alleges in count two and so I find the defendant not guilty."

During the case, the court heard that the issue began on June 24, 2004, when Ms Powell was involved in a road traffic collision in Hamilton for which she was issued the first of three moving violation tickets on July 1.

It was on July 1 in the company of her father Harry Powell that the complainant first met Mr. Cumberbatch who had her sign the ticket for the moving violation.

When M. Powell, 24, appeared in court on July 13, 2004, to answer for the ticket her case was not called and spoke to a Police officer at court about it.

About one month later she said she was contacted by Mr. Cumberbatch and they arranged to meet at the Hamilton Police Station where she was issued the second ticket.

In court, according to Mr. Warner, she expressed surprise that the second ticket, which resembled a moving violation, was a caution.

Ms Powell, however, was arrested in May 2005 after a third ticket for the initial moving violation which was issued on November 13, which she claims she never signed or knew about.

Mr. Warner said that on the stand Ms Powell seemed unsure of the sequence of events and about important details such as when she was contacted.

Though Mr. Cumberbatch did not take the stand in his defence, his statement was read into court by prosecution where he stated: "I called her again and informed her of the circumstances and that I had to issue her a ticket.

"She came to the Hamilton Police Station. She signed the ticket and I told her she could be arrested if she did not come back to court on January 5."

Evidence from the handwriting expert, Susan MacKinnis which reported that the signature on the third ticket probably was not Ms Powell's expressed uncertainty, according to Mr. Warner.

And because of this uncertainty Mr. Warner could not be sure who wrote the signature on the ticket. "I accept Anderson Cumberbatch that he did not sign the third ticket," Mr. Warner added, "Remember it is up to the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he signed it and I am unsure who wrote on the third ticket."

Mr. Cumberbatch was then found not guilty and allowed to leave the court room.