Police, Should I Be Angry?

[rb30gtr]

Hey guys

I was stoppped in the first street past my house, about 4 mins from my Mechanic and the RTA, by an unmarked police car.

Not speeding or breaking the law, although car was 12hours out of rego as I had to iron out some things for pink slip.

I drove out of my drive way got to the first corner 50 meters and realised I forgot the rego papers, so I turned around, all legal, slow because of the child care and primary schools in my street and there they stopped me.

I got fine 477 for no rego and 477 for no insurance. I was not rude or smart and didnt swear or argue.

My first comment was that I am heading to get a pink slip now, and the female police officer snapped "I dont belive you", so I said follow me to my mechainic then the rta, she then said " we not an escort service" they both stated that in their opinion I had been driving the car around. I have a commodore wagon that I drive everywhere.

In state law it is written that it is against the law to drive an unregistered car.

Federal law states that in the life of you owning a vehicle you only need to register it once.

I do not have enough money for the fines or to fight the two officers in court, its their word against mine.

I was told to step out of the car and leave it in the no parking zone and walk home, and get it towed to a mechanic or my residence.

I would like to add I had never seen these two cops before nor had I had any convictions for anything recently.

this is not a joke. I have been told that because the law states you cannot drive a car unreg, its entirly up to the police wether you get fined or not.

pay the fines? or not pay? or should I go around hating all police now as once again the prove how some poeple should not be givin any power.

[AlexR34]

Oh mate, thats shit to hear, i believe it is up to the police to let you go or not, i think your one unlcky bugger but i think you have no choice but to pay the fines. You shouldn't hate all police just those 2, remeber the faces and maybe one day they will need something from you, revenge is nice. You shouldn hate all police officers they people aswell, and just like people, some are asholes. So take it on the chin, pay it off slowly and don't loose to much sleep over it, whats done is done.

[R31Nismoid]

No point going to court.

You broke the law and thats how it is really.

[MANWHORE]

That depends on whether he actually broke the law or not. Depending on the laws relating to your state, it isn't illegal to drive to a place for registration, or to get the car roadworthy, or directly back home.

I'd take it to court.

[Kozeyekan]

The U-Turn will screw you up.

Picture it, you're a cop, a guy is driving towards you, then does a U turn to get away from you. You pull them over, they have no rego, and claim that they were going to get it rego'd in that trip.

I'd find it hard to swallow too. I'm not implying anything, just that they'd get that excuse with every car that is out of rego.

You can get day rego passes, which is what you legally have to do. I got this done when I was getting my car complied.

You'd probably be wsting your time taking it to court.

[DECIM8]

From memory not having insurance in sydney is NOT illegal .. please correct me if im wrong because im not entirly sure however im 90% sure its not illegal.

Secondly im pretty sure out of rego, you driving it in sydney = fine .. you have to pay that one.

If you cant pay you have about 6 months before they send debt collectors which will cancel your licence etc.

hope that helps ring the RTA, from memory my cousin got done for writing "traffic" on a car and driving it to a mates for it to be wrecked. you have to contact the RTA to get a temp licence plate made to drive the car. So im pretty sure your done - however his fine amounted $1000 and over.

Hope ive helped some what.

[dnbutts]

ouch, pretty crap. speak to the cop shop maybe? ask them to check it out (doubt they will)

worth a shot though.

[ashneel]

why did you fine you for not having insurance??? thought that was only like in the US and other countrys buy not Aus?

thats sad to hear man. cops can be a real ass at times.

when i had my el falcon it was not registered and i was only moving it out of my driveway into my next door neighbours driveway and as i was reversing out cops saw no plates pulled me over between my house and the neighbours house. now i live in a court and they pulled me over and intended on giving me a fine for driving an unregisterd car which was pretty freakin silly. my neighbour was even standing at his driveway waiting for me to bring the car in.

they gave me a fine of $380 i think it was. didnt go to court but i went to the local cop shop explained my situation and had my neighbour as a witness and i got out of it.

[raz0r$harP.UK]

Chris (Manwhore) is correct. You can drive an unregistered car on the street for the purposes of establishing registration. This applies in both NSW and VIC (although there are subtle differences in each state).

One of the times you are allowed to drive is 'to the nearest convenient vehicle inspection station or authorised inspection station to determine whether the vehicle complies with the applicable vehicle standards' (as per here). If you got done within operating hours of the mechanic, then I'd consider contesting it.

Just clearing up some other things below...

Secondly im pretty sure out of rego, you driving it in sydney = fine .. you have to pay that one.

As above. But if you are caught driving for any other reason, it's a fine.

hope that helps ring the RTA, from memory my cousin got done for writing "traffic" on a car and driving it to a mates for it to be wrecked.

The 'TRAFFIC' thing is a myth.

you have to contact the RTA to get a temp licence plate made to drive the car.

No you don't.

why did you fine you for not having insurance??? thought that was only like in the US and other countrys buy not Aus?

That 'no insurance' fine (if you get done for it) is for no CTP.

[Duncan]

I'm am sure you are allowed to drive an unregistered car for the purpose of getting it registered - and no idea why they gave you trouble about it. I drove my bloody bright yellow race car 30klm across sydney for a rego check in Kirawee without problems.

Anyway....now they've written out the fine you will need to elect to take it to court or just pay up. If you take it to court find the relevent details on the RTA site and make sure you can explain what you were doing was legal to the judge.

[R31Nismoid]

Chris (Manwhore) is correct. You can drive an unregistered car on the street for the purposes of establishing registration. This applies in both NSW and VIC (although there are subtle differences in each state).

VIC you need an un-reg vehicle permit.

You cant just up and drive it... i think you might if its only to the Rego place.

But certainly not mechanics for Roadworthy certs and stuff

[TheWiseOne]

VIC you need an un-reg vehicle permit.

You cant just up and drive it... i think you might if its only to the Rego place.

But certainly not mechanics for Roadworthy certs and stuff

Yep R31Nismoid is right i had to get an un-reg Permit. It cost be $50 for the week but i did not want to take the risk of paying a $500 fine , If you have an appointment at Vicroads (I do on friday) to get it regoed you dont need the un-reg permit.

[raz0r$harP.UK]

VIC you need an un-reg vehicle permit.

You cant just up and drive it... i think you might if its only to the Rego place.

But certainly not mechanics for Roadworthy certs and stuff

I was going off this Ash:

An unregistered vehicle without a permit can be driven on the road only:

- to obtain registration, and

- by the most direct and convenient route to the nearest place that the vehicle can be registered.

...

Prior to registration, you will need to obtain an unregistered vehicle permit if the vehicle needs to be driven for the purpose of obtaining repairs or a roadworthy certificate.

I read that as saying if you have your RWC and stuff ready (i.e. all paperwork ready to register), but your car is unregged you can drive it without needing a UVP (NB - talking about Victoria here!).

[MK2]

I read that as saying if you have your RWC and stuff ready (i.e. all paperwork ready to register), but your car is unregged you can drive it without needing a UVP.

Yep, I believe that is correct. If you're just going to drive the vehicle to the RTA, pay the rego it's alright to drive it unrego'd

edit: However, if you're taking it in for the pink slip and the rego it's kind of a bit of a grey area

Sucks you got stung but I think they where able to do that number on you without much chance of you getting out of it

Edited July 18, 2007 by MK2

[swanny180]

As above, you can be driving an unregistered car for only one of two reasons.

1 - To an inspection station in order to get it registered, or

2 - To a place where repairs are to be made so as to prepare for the inspection.

Problem is you were driving to your house. Dont think this is allowed.

And to be honest, I dont really believe the story 100%, and I doubt the cops will.

If you can genuinely say youre telling the truth, its a shame and I feel sorry for you, but I dont see you getting out of it.

If not, well you shouldnt have been stupid enough to drive an unregistered, uninsured car.

[raz0r$harP.UK]

Yep, I believe that is correct. If you're just going to drive the vehicle to the RTA, pay the rego it's alright to drive it unrego'd

edit: However, if you're taking it in for the pink slip and the rego it's kind of a bit of a grey area

Sucks you got stung but I think they where able to do that number on you without much chance of you getting out of it

I gotta watch myself here - my reply to Ash that you quoted above was talking about VicRoads.

However in response to what you said, the RTA specifies that pink/blue slips, going to get CTP, vehicle inspection stations, visiting the RTA, going to a garage for repairs - all can be driven to unregistered (see list: http://rta.nsw.gov.au/registration/rego_unregistered.html ).

[cowie165]

Go Vijay.

Facts rule.

[MANWHORE]

Nice one razor.

I can't believe how many times i've seen traffic written on cardboard . I don't know what made them think that they need a plate that says traffic.

If that were the case, I'd just not bother about registering, and just write my own plates out

[Dean_HR31]

You SHOULD be angry.

Even police officers these days dont know the law!! I've spoken to 4-5 cops in the passed 2 weeks who have known

less than me about the new P Plate restrictions on high powered vehicles effective 1st July.

It all depends on who pulls u over. Which sucks. I'd prefer either everybody to get done for the exact same thing or

vise versa.

[dangerous_daveo]

Also look at it from the cops point of view. They have probably heard that same story 2000000 times before, so instantly they ignore that.

To some degree they have a duty of care to the community, and even to yourself. Seems a lot of people don't understand what CTP is (the C being compuslary) It covers you if you injure or kill a 3rd party person, and you ONLY have this insurance if your car is has rego. So say you were telling a furfy, but Mr & Mrs police officer beleived you. You then proceeded to drive around and run a pedestrian over. You have no insurance, so that person will need to sue you to be compensated for their injurys which you caused, if you have no money, they dont get compensation, you get in a lot more trouble.

Really, makes sense...