THE area commander for Maidstone and Malling Police is preparing to travel to the other side of the world to take charge of the policing unit for southern Australia.

Supt Mick Matthews will be leaving Maidstone in April to swap roles with the superintendent from the South Australia Police force in Adelaide in a three-month exchange programme. His role at Maidstone will be taken over by the Adelaide superintendent Tom Osborn. Mr Matthews said: "I am looking forward to the challenge of taking on a policing area I don't know which has unusual laws."

As the former head of intelligence for Kent Police, he will be sharing his experience of intelligence work with the Australian force.

He said: "I am also going to be looking at some interesting uses of technology in scene of crime investigations used in Australia."

The exchange between the two forces began last year when the area commander for Thanet visited Australia.

Mr Matthews added: "This has not been undertaken lightly, but the police authority felt there was so much to gain from it and wanted to do it again this year."