Aisha Nozari
An Australian father-of-three has been accused of stealing 250,000 Australian dollars (£142,000) worth of traffic lights.
Ryan Purdie, 32, spent the last several years restoring disused traffic lights to help him teach road safety programs at primary schools and keeps them in his garden.
But Melbourne-based Purdie was recently ‘swarmed and handcuffed by plain-clothes police officers’ and ended up in Melbourne Magistrates Court on 21 March charged with theft.
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Speaking to 9News' A Current Affair, Purdie, who teaches road safety workshops to children with his organisation Traffic Lights for Kinders, said the charges have taken a toll on his mental health and family life.
Purdie explained he has collected and restored almost 70 traffic lights over five years, which he donates to schools. Purdie would collect lights that had been thrown into skips as they no longer met road standards.
He was inspired to start collecting lights after he noticed that road safety programs geared towards kids were in short supply.
Purdie said he had ‘an unofficial relationship with traffic technology company Tyco Traffic for four years’ and ‘could take whatever was thrown in the skip free of charge’.
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But after being employed by the company as a driver, Purdie and Tyco Traffic’s relationship deteriorated as Purdie claims he was asked to carry out work ‘he hadn't been trained to do’.
Days after lodging a complaint with a manager, Purdie said he was arrested in a carpark, and police say they found more than $7,000 of ‘stolen items’ in Purdie's home.
Purdie is facing allegations that he stole ‘equipment and documents worth $249,831 from Tyco Traffic Systems between June and December last year’, Daily Mail Australia reports.
Purdie insists that during the four years he worked with Tyco Traffic, a written agreement was in place that allowed him to empty skips.
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Speaking on Australia's A Current Affair programme, Purdie said: “I've never been that type of person. I've never been charged with anything in my life and this is a big shock.”
He added to Daily Mail Australia: “This is another example of an Australian worker being discriminated against because he upheld his rights in the workplace but was bullied all the way down.
“It's taken a hit on my mental health and family. I'll be fighting this until the end.”
The outlet reports that Purdie has had his bail extended and he will next appear in court in October.
LADbible has approached Tyco Traffic (now called Johnson Controls) for comment.