Thomas Hanaway charged with personating police for 9th time
Thomas Hanaway has been charged yet again with personating a peace officer — just a month after his last arrest.
The 59-year-old Winnipeg man was taken into custody on Sunday from a home on the 500 block of Manitoba Avenue.
In addition to the charge of personating, Hanaway was charged with three counts of failing to comply with a probation order.
It's the ninth time Hanaway has been charged with personation. He has been convicted on six charges while others are still before the courts.
"I'm not sure, exactly, why he is doing what he's doing and why he refuses to stop," said police spokesman Const. Jay Murray, adding he does not believe Hanaway is getting any material benefit from of his actions.
"I don't think he has tried to influence investigations. Maybe he's living a fantasy. For whatever reason, he wants to pretend to be a police officer in the digital world, and unfortunately, he tricked a number of people by doing so.
"It's very frustrating and we'll leave it to the courts to decide what's next for this individual."
In September, Hanaway was charged with falsely representing himself as a member of the RCMP and part of their dive team.
Police said he used social media to communicate with a number of police and scuba driver groups, portraying himself as an experienced member of the RCMP.
It was shortly after that conviction that police received more complaints that Hanaway was continuing to pretend to be both an active member and a retired member of the RCMP between Sept. 14 and Oct. 22.
Hanaway's nine charges for personating police, dating back to 2009, include:
- Last year, Manitoba RCMP received multiple complaints from across North America about an officer inappropriately using social media and other online forums. At that time, Hanaway was using the name of an active Manitoba police officer while talking with people online.
- In 2010, he was found guilty of trying to pass himself off as a high-ranking RCMP officer. He went to a military veterans legion in East St. Paul, north of Winnipeg, and told people he was the commander of the local RCMP detachment.
