Inspector Damon Cox claimed in a Sydney court last week the disorder stemmed from his time on the beat.

The magistrate agreed with him and he will have the charges dropped once he enters mental health treatment.

It's interesting to note that although he claimed to have mental health issues, Inspector Fox was aware enough to use his position in the police to attempt to "induce " a store employee not to report him.

The inspector stole $20 worth of goods including chocolates, cheese and rat poison from a local supermarket.

Now I touched on this last week, but the excuses being rolled out in our courts for all sorts of offences are at best far-fetched, and sometimes ridiculous.

Surely you know when you join the police force it's not going to be a picnic.

There's no doubt it's a tough job, particularly when you have to attend fatal accidents, murder scenes and other such traumatic incidents.

But you do know that when you join up - that's why I'm a journalist and not a police officer.

So, that said, isn't a bit of a stretch to start blaming the job when you are caught shoplifting?

Similarly, serving soldiers blame the war in Afghanistan when they get into trouble.

The horror of war is the catch cry. Again, while it's obviously traumatic, I would have thought if you are given a gun then at some stage you are possible going to use it.

Worse still someone is likely to shoot back.

In fact, seldom a week goes by here at The Daily Advertiser that I'm not abused by an unhappy reader. 

You see, there are definitely those people that want to be in the paper and unfortunately there are those don't.

It's usually the latter that ring up and make all sorts of threats.

However I don't really think I can blame my 14 speeding offences (18 when you include the four from interstate) and subsequent loss of licence on the stress of those calls.

I believe my own stupidity may have had something to do with it.

Personally I think it's disappointing a senior police officer would use the pressure of his job as an excuse to shoplift.

As well, I think it's equally disappointing that he appears to have gotten away with it.

Inspector Cox is a decorated officer with years of experience, he really should have just known better.

According to the experts, most shop-lifting cases are opportunistic and I'm yet to be convinced this particular incident is any different.