AM host Ryan Bridge has confessed to stretching the truth with police when he was a teenager after he was caught doing an illegal manoeuvre by an off-duty police officer.
Bridge made the comments on Friday, following a discussion over Labour MP Ingrid Leary's apology for queue-jumping traffic and viewers sharing other confessions over their own driving antics.
"When I was very young, when I was a teenager, there was a huge line of traffic and I'd finally got my licence and I could drive to school which was awesome," Bridge began.
"I drove half on the footpath, because there was a big line of traffic that was lining up and turning right or you could go half on the footpath, half on the road and turn left and do a U turn and get to school faster, so I did that," he said as co-host Laura Tupou looked increasingly shocked.
"There was an off-duty police officer sitting in his car watching me do it. I got this letter from them with a $400 fine and I shamefully wrote a letter back lying, saying, 'It wasn't me driving, it was somebody else' - and how were they to know?
"Anyway, two weeks later there was a knock at the door, and dad answers the door. It's a police officer, who says, 'Yes, I think that was your son who was driving'.
"My dad goes, 'Ryan come here' and the police officer says, 'It was you'."
Bridge revealed he then knew he had 'fess up to his actions.
"I had to confess that it was me, and apologise and write a letter of apology, and it was a steep learning curve for being honest."
Bridge's co-hosts joked they were not impressed, with newsreader Michael O'Keeffe saying he "should have had to pay more for lying and for wasting that police officer's time."
But Bridge said he'd then argued with his father over whether he was in the right.
"As soon as he closed the door I said to dad, he was off-duty, that doesn't count - they don't have any power do they?"
Watch the video above.
