hey guys, I was just speaking to a friend, who was busted by the cops yesterday for driving an unregistered car witih false license plates, and i wonder if anyone can provide some direction on what he should do. basically he purchased a car off Ebay and went to Toowong to pick it up. when he was driving it home, some undercover police pulled him over because the plates were off a car that lost the plates 2 years ago. (no he didnt put the plates on, it was purchased this way) they took the plates off him, and have issued him a notice to appear in court. apparently he has the option of attending court and representing himself attending court with a solicitor at his expense or writing a letter to appeal the fine/charge. does anyone have any suggestion of what he should do?
several excellant options. Drag the matter out ,should get him 1 year from now before goes to court,when he gets the summons after they will no longer give him extented time,ignore it.Then appeal to have the court here the matter again.Total time about 18 months. Re the fine options are. Pay it over time say $10 per month Do jail about $100 per day or do community work also $100 per day,I prefer this option,its amazzing the amount of fun you can have doing this ie washing graffiti of walls oops oops I spilt the bucket of paint, oops oops I washed the paint of someones house.
I don't think there is a problem there at all. If the guy can prove through financial transactions he bought a car, and it was advertised etc, not sure why the question. Surely your friend explained what he'd just done to the Police. I would have thought he'd have a receipt of the transaction?
yeah, my first question was "didnt you show them the transfer papers" no matter, it all happened now, hes a little worked up and anxious as to what to do, but im thinking his best bet will be to write in a letter of appeal, with a copy of the xfer & maybe some screen prints of the Ebay ad.
Why wouldn't anyone check whether a car they were buying had valid registration (or not) before buying a car? Even just for bargaining purposes. My first question would have been, didn't you check the car had registration first......
Exactly. Unless of course he bought something really cheap like some $500 ****box so he didn't think it was worth his time. $34 Vcheck would of saved him all this hassle https://www.service.transport.qld.gov.au/vehicleinformationcheckQt/Welcome.jsp What did the copper say about the person that sold him the car? Surely he is in more trouble for selling a car with stolen plates? Id be writing a letter 1st. See what they say then decide if you should take it too court. LOL 91 WRX Image Unavailable, Please Login
IMHO... A not guilty plea would be the most futile exercise in this kind of situation. The short point is that he was the operator of the car when it was fitted with stolen plates. Thats all thats required to issue a fine in this kind of offence. Simply saying "I didn't know" won't work because, having just bought the car, most magistrates will just think about why you didn't make enquiries about the rego status of the car when you bought it - thats what would have been reasonable to do, so saying "I didn't know" won't be an acceptable excuse. If going to court perhaps one could say: 1. Its not your actual driving that brought you to the attention of police 2. It was a terrible error of judgment on your part 3. You regret it 4. You're traffic record is (hopefully) good 5. Show some different circumstances that explain the lapse of judgment (stress that made you forget about running rego checks, etc) (as mentioned above, the fact that you just bought it won't in itself be helpful, but may give context) 6. Some references Perhaps after that a magistrate might dismiss it, or apply the fine but not the points (at least thats what can be done in NSW) but that would largely depend on who the magistrate is and if they are feeling generous. If you were going to roll the dice on trying to extract yourself, then you'd start with a letter to whoever it is that collects the fines. That is unlikely to do anything helpful other than draw out time. After that you'd eventually appear in court and run the above points (which would probably be delivered better by a solicitor, except there is a cost involved). The quick way is to just suck it up and acknowledge that you made an error of judgment, pay the fine, and move on. If your licence is on the line because of it though (because I anticpate that there is a point penalty too) then its probably worth a go to turn up at court.
that'll be the ****ing day !! this is QLD and the chances of finding a magistrate that lives in the real world AND has any commonsense is highly unlikely, condescending , hypocrites is all I've found. The legal system is based on "how a judge feels that day " ??? What about that "Einfeld" case ? How unusual was that, ****ing hypocrite was dishing out penalties to people for decades and then thought he knew how to cover up his own indiscretion !!
Too many lawyers with nothing to do but waste time in court IMO. For crying out loud sack the car has the wrong number plates. He didn't shoot anyone. What happened to innocent until proven guilty. Not everyone knows to do a check on the car. Everyone gets fined nowadays. In the old days the Policeman would have told the guy what he should have done to avoid the situation he got himself into.
Now hang on a minute,he,s bought this thing in Qld right,as a registered car.Where is his roadworthy certificate??,transfer papers and receipt? If he doesn,t have that stuff then unfortunately he,s as guilty as the vendor,sorry.I,m in the car game as a buyer of quite a few vehicles over the years and thats the Qld law for a registered car,otherwise the car gets sold with NO rego OR plates.The vehicle would have to be trucked to your mates' place or he would have to get a roadworthy AND compulsory third party insurance AND his receipt AND be on the way to the rego shop for him not to be in strife. If he had an accident where someone was injured or worse he would be paying for the rest of his life(maybe in more ways than one if he,s the injured party)
Strewth!! Did Rob hack your account. PUT A SPACE AFTER A COMMA/FULLSTOP and a space between paragraphs wouldn't hurt
Thanks Simon, much along the lines im thinking also, i will be seeing him this afternoon and hopefully getting more detail on exactly what happened. but the more im thinking about it, my mate made an error in judgement and may have to just grin and bear it. still wont hurt to write an appeal letter though.
Thanx for the heads up. I wrote this in a hurry, but I will be more carefull in the future, so as not to raise your ire.
your on the list ,BQ has your email address,I will also flick to you information as the rally gets closer.Just mark down the week after the AGP. Be there or be square.
