Gt-r 40km/h Over. Need Your Help!

[Cowboy1600]

Should have taken it all the way, like everyone was telling you here, instead of being a pussy and typing out some heartfelt story like they gave a damn.

You broke the law, pleaded guilty - you can't expect them to be lenient given the circumstances.

If you fought it, then there would have been the burden of proof hurdle to overcome, which could have been inconclusive given that there are two cars, and the holden is the leading car in the photo (maybe the winnah in the 'race'?)

People only get off fines for technicalities these days. Sob stories and crying poor me does not cut it any more people.

FYI, In Vic, if a company owns the Vehicle, then it is possible to not nominate a driver and pay ~$700 with no points deducted.

http://online.fines.vic.gov.au/fines/Content.aspx?page=66

Nominate Another Driver

Information for Corporations

If a vehicle detected committing a traffic offence is registered to a corporation, the corporation must nominate the person who was driving the vehicle at the time of the offence.

Only an authorised officer on behalf of the corporation can complete a nomination statement. If you are not an authorised officer of the corporation, do not complete or sign any nomination statement.

If a vehicle registered to a corporation is detected committing an offence by a traffic camera, a request for details of the driver will be sent to the corporation. If no response is received on the initial request, an infringement notice for the traffic offence will be sent to the corporation. In addition, an infringement notice will also be issued to the corporation for the offence of 'Company Failing to Disclose Identity of Driver'. The penalty amount for this offence is 6 penalty units or $717.00 (as at 1 July 2010). But the plot thickens - Read below

If a nomination for the traffic offence is valid and accepted by the due date, you will not have to pay and a new infringement notice will be issued to the person nominated. The infringement notice for 'Company Failing to Disclose Identity of a Driver' will also be withdrawn.

If you do not nominate within the time set out on the notice, you risk having the matter escalate to enforcement order stage and becoming more serious and more costly.

If you are an authorised officer of a corporation and you would like to nominate the driver, select the scenario below which applies to you.

Note:

Payments from a corporation will not be accepted prior to the issuing of an infringement notice.

[Beer Baron]

yes, but you don't sit back and do nothing and wait for the fines to escalate. when he said "not nominate a drive" he didn't mean you just do nothing, he meant you fill out the form stating that you cannot establish who was driving the vehicle at that time on that date as the vehicle is shared between a number of staff and/or loaned to customers etc. then you pay the 'fail to nominate fine' and that's it.

[Cowboy1600]

I don't think you get it BB.

You don't get to choose to pay the fine and nominate no one, you can not nominate anyone and get fined and then nominate someone or else someone is going to get in a whole lot more trouble or you can nominate someone inthe first place.

[Duncan]

cowboy1600...as stated above that is NOT the case in NSW. I can't confirm for sure in Vic. But the fact remains....a corporation is not a person and therefore cannot hold a license to lose points....but it can own a car.

NO law I am aware of holds employees of a company liable (eg a CEO). Some laws hold directors liable to some extent (which is why they have "Ltd" on the end of the company name).

I cannot see how an employee can be held responsible for the actions of a corporation.

I'll bet my left nut that the quote you posted becomes unclear about the impact of not nominating a driver because there is no actual way to hold any person responsible for a corporations action (or inaction).

[Cowboy1600]

I'm pretty sure I made it clear I was talking about Vic.

From http://online.fines.vic.gov.au/fines/Content.aspx?page=20

• I've received a fine for 'Company Failing to Disclose Identity of Driver'. What does this mean?
• If a vehicle registered in a corporation's name is detected committing an offence by a traffic camera, a request for details of the driver will be sent to the corporation. If no response is received on the initial request, a penalty for failing to nominate the driver will be issued to the corporation. The penalty notice will be labelled 'Company Failing to Disclose Identity of Driver'.
  If a valid nomination is made and accepted by the due date, you will not have to pay and a new infringement notice will be issued to the person nominated. If you do not nominate within time, you risk having the matter escalate to enforcement order stage and becoming more serious and more costly.

And if you think it's an idle threat, think again.

[hamiltonau]

so hows it travelling? heard back re your suspension yet? poor bugger, i would have so stat dec'd it. so common down here in NSW its become a verb

[eastes]

so hows it travelling? heard back re your suspension yet? poor bugger, i would have so stat dec'd it. so common down here in NSW its become a verb

Still no sign!

[hamiltonau]

thats cool, maybe it will get lost in the mail?

bet every day you get to drive the skyline is that much sweeter knowing it might be your last..hey u gotta look hard for the silver lining sometimes..

oh and i wonder if a defense like this guy used might have helped?

http://swns.com/scaredy-prat-motorist-escapes-ban-because-he-was-frightened-of-foreign-lorry-081018.html

[Beer Baron]

cowboy. I just read the vic link you posted.

it says:

If no response is received on the initial request, an infringement notice for the traffic offence will be sent to the corporation. In addition, an infringement notice will also be issued to the corporation for the offence of 'Company Failing to Disclose Identity of Driver'. The penalty amount for this offence is 6 penalty units or $717.00 (as at 1 July 2010).

they don't spell it out as of course they don't want to encourage people doing it. but what that says to me is that if your company sends in the notice with 'cannot identify driver' or just does nothing the CORPORATION will get the infringement notice for the offence (ie they will have to pay whatever the fine was), PLUS they will have to pay $717 for failing to nominate. that's it. no director of officer of the company will loose points. as duncan stated a corporation cannot have a drivers licence but they can own and register a car. this is basically the same system as nsw. and I know the system here as like duncan I've had to use it when company cars have been pinged. NSW doesn't spell it out either as they don't want people abusing it.

[hamiltonau]

any updates?

[eastes]

Suspension finally arrived in the mail. I've hired a lawyer to help me with the Extreme Hardship License. His fee is $2000 to build a case for me, tell me what I need to do an when and will appear in court on my behalf.

Suspension officially starts on 4th of April at 12:01 am. The next morning, I just need to get a letter from transport department to say this is on hold, pending court appearance for hardship license. Then I can drive again.

Regarding strength of case, I need to be able to drive for work and I haven't had serious trouble in the past, so it should be fine. Fingers crossed.

[eastes]

Finally. I have closure. Today was court date to request Special Hardship license, allowing me to drive for 6 months during the suspension period for work purposes only.

To help the judge decide, the following was provided:

• Certificate of attendance to the attitudinal driving seminar. (not a defensive driving course.) Judge loved that I did this
• Affidavit from my boss listing a whole bunch of stuff about my job and how I'll lose my job if I lose my licence. (signed and witnessed by JP or lawyer)
• Three written character references. Two were from cop friends, 1 from a charity that I help out at. They needed to be in a very specific format - addressed to "your honor", state that they know of the exact offence, state that I'm remorseful, that it was out of character, that they don't believe I'll re-offend, that they were surprised. etc...
• My complete re-account of the offence
• A signed affidavit from myself with a whole bunch of stuff about me. My family life, how I will suffer financially if I lose my job (eg, can't pay mortgage), can't maintain a fair relationship, (if you had kids, I'd say I can't support kids without a job etc...), what my assets, my expenses and my income etc....
• There was more information that the lawyer provided. I can't remember all the details. Probably just formality stuff.
• Details of my driving history (eg no minor infringments for nearly 3 years)

The most important thing was the affidavit from boss and myself. The thing he seemed to love the most was that I attended the attitudinal driving seminar.

If I simply had a crack at representing myself, it would have been a lot more stressful and definitely wouldn't have been a sure thing. I used a gun lawyer named Andrew Wiseman to help. Was $2000.

Luckily I didn't dispute the infringement at the start. It would have reduced my chance of a the special license.

Anyway, I hope this helps anyone in a similar situation.

[GTR-N1]

Nice of you to supply the content of this feedback Richard.

Courageous too.

How was the seminar?

[Birds]

So I'm assuming from all that, that you got your work permit in the end?

Goes to show, you get what you pay for when it comes to legal advice. Sounds like your lawyer has done something similar a thousand times over. The pro-active / volunteered "punishment" (in this case, the driving seminar) is a good strategy. Shallow or not, it certainly demonstrates a degree of remorse that you're willing to go to those lengths to undo your mistake.

[Marlin]

Did you read his post birds, first para

[Birds]

Yeah I gathered from the tone that he was successful, but "closure" doesn't always imply a win...to me that just means the court day has been and gone and now he can stop worrying about whether he will win/lose

[eastes]

Yeah I gathered from the tone that he was successful, but "closure" doesn't always imply a win...to me that just means the court day has been and gone and now he can stop worrying about whether he will win/lose

You got it. There was closure knowing I didn't need to worry about it anymore and yes, being able to drive for work was a win. Hooray!

[Birds]

Congrats mate, no risk no reward!

[Trozzle]

I may have missed it since I skipped parts of this thread, though I must ask - will this outcome affect your insurance? I gather you technically still have your license suspended, so yes it will. Just curious though.

[eastes]

I may have missed it since I skipped parts of this thread, though I must ask - will this outcome affect your insurance? I gather you technically still have your license suspended, so yes it will. Just curious though.

Still worried about that. My insurance broker is looking into it. Might register the car as a company as well. Will let you know as soon as I find something.