An Uber driver who entered a Brisbane woman's house uninvited and managed to get her contact details has had stalking charges against him dropped.
Christopher Carl Burrell, 57, was wearing a Queensland Fire and Rescue Service hat when he went to the Moggill house to go to the toilet after sleeping in his car last August, the Brisbane Magistrates Court heard on Monday.
Defence lawyer Brent Haverfield said Burrell believed the house was under construction and was looking for the site manager to ask whether he could go to the toilet after sleeping in his car, which was having mechanical issues.
The court heard Burrell was wearing a cap with a QFRS logo, which he'd bought from an op shop, and got into a conversation with the woman who got the impression he was a QFES officer sent there by her neighbours.
Mr Haverfield said his client didn't say anything to convince the woman otherwise and ended up talking to her about the ongoing issues she was having with her neighbours.
She believed Burrell could help and gave him personal contact details, including her phone number, he said.
"It just kept rolling along," Mr Haverfield said, adding there was no malice involved.
Burrell, from Sydney, pleaded guilty to impersonating a public officer.
It had been alleged that he contacted her afterwards, however the stalking charges were dropped after the prosecution offered no evidence for two charges of stalking and entering a dwelling with intent.
Mr Haverfield argued a conviction shouldn't be recorded as it may preclude his client from working as an Uber driver in NSW, a job which supplemented his disability pension.
Magistrate Anne Thacker described the case as peculiar but serious given the breach of trust involved.
She fined him $1000 and recorded a conviction.
"It's devious, it's cause for alarm, it should never happen again," she said.
