Habitual Traffic Offender Declarations

Our client had committed a number of major traffic offences including two driving while disqualified offence over a period of two weeks and was declared a habitual traffic offender.

Our client served four years in court imposed disqualifications due to these offences.

As a result of being declared a habitual traffic offender, our client had to serve a further five year disqualification period.

Our client had recently got engaged and had his first child. Furthermore he required his licence for work purposes. Our client appealed the habitual traffic offender declaration.

One of our dedicated solicitors had the habitual offender traffic declaration quashed after successfully arguing that a further five year driving disqualification was a disproportionate and unjust consequence having regard to the special circumstances of our clients case.

Our client had 4 Habitual Traffic Offender Declarations on account of a large number of Driving Whilst Disqualified offences.

His traffic record revealed that following his last Driving Whilst Disqualified offence, there were seven camera-detected speeding offences on his traffic record. This inference from his traffic record was that he had continued to drive but had simply not been caught, largely due to the nature of the offences being caught on camera rather than by a police officer first hand.

The camera-detected offences provided a significant obstacle for our lawyers. The strongest argument in favour of our client was that his abstinence from offending but his record suggested that he had been flaunting the law until up to a year before our court appearance.

Ultimately, our solicitor called the client to give evidence and an explanation.

Under oath our client gave evidence, backed up with affidavits from family members, that he had a large extended family living with him in the period of the camera-detected offences. His evidence was that family members had been coming and going from the home and he had been unable to locate who paid the fines.

He noted the eldest family member felt obliged to pay the fines. Further, we tended two leases showing that when our client moved out of the home in which his family had stayed, and into a smaller residence with only his wife and children, the offending ceased completely.

His Honour Mr. Still, Local Court Magistrate, accepted this evidence and quashed the four Habitual Traffic Offender Declarations.