An insurer has refused a veteran policeman with PTSD and permanent injuries compensation for moving house, despite previously “agreeing” to it, according to the former officer.
Single dad-of-three Paul Robson, 52, tore his achilles tendon and shattered his wrist while arresting a gunman intending to carry out a hit in 2010.
“We were given 10 minutes notice there was going to be a murder,” he said.
“A drug deal that was going up (in the Northern Territory) went sour.
“Someone incorrectly blamed a man in Geelong for it. They were going to shoot this man believing him to be the informer.”
Mr Robson wished not to divulge what happened out of respect for another officer involved in the arrest, which occurred near a group of children.
“It turns out my nine year-old son was in that group of kids 50 metres away,” he said.
While the arrest left Mr Robson with permanent injuries, most of his mental scars came from working in a western suburbs sexual offences unit.
“It didn’t matter how long I was able to get an offender in jail for,” he said.
“It was the fact I couldn’t do anything for the victim. I’ve been involved in cases where the victim was as young as eight months.”
Mr Robson takes several tablets each day for his wrist, ankle and PTSD, including painkillers and antidepressants, and has had several ketamine infusions.
“I’ve had four surgeries and they can’t fix (my achilles tendon),” he said.
Since Mr Robson left the force in 2016, Victoria Police’s workplace insurer Gallagher Bassett has provided him with mowing and cleaning services.
“Very rarely have I had a bad interaction with them but lately that has become a constant.”
Mr Robson phoned the insurer in September as he planned to move house due to damage to his existing home.
He booked a removal after two consultants gave “tacit approval” that he could claim the expense, he said.
But almost a month later the insurer wrote back saying the service was not “reasonable and/or necessary”, or approved by WorkSafe under the act.
“That’s $2000 this veteran doesn’t have,” he said.
“The kids and I are not surviving financially after my divorce. You think, ‘what the hell did I do (30 years in Victoria Police) for?’”
Gallagher Bassett referred the Indy to WorkSafe, which declined to comment for “privacy reasons”.
