Port Macquarie Suspended Driving Case Study: Fine Default Suspension, 1-Month Minimum and No Fine (NSW)

Good day, guys. It's Josh from Boorman Lawyers. I'm here at Port Macquarie. I have just attended the uh Port Macquarie local court, which is the courthouse directly behind me across the road. Um I represented a client today. Uh he's actually an exist well a pre-existing a client who I've represented a couple of times in the past on a couple of drink drives. The last being in 2023. But on this occasion, he was actually charged with a suspended driving offence. Um, now there are different types of suspended driving offences in New South Wales.

Um, this particular category of suspended driving was due to um a fine default suspension. So, effectively what that means is that he had some um some fines. He put them on a payment plan. Uh, one of the payments uh had defaulted unbeknownst to him. um uh a notice was sent out chasing payment. Eventually, if the payment goes um unattended to, then Service New South Wales has the um ability to um uh suspend someone's uh New South Wales driver's licence, and that's what happened here. So, um uh our client unfortunately didn't help himself in August 2025.

That's when he was pulled over for a speeding offence on the uh Pacific Highway. He was um driving north of um Coffs Harbour and pulled over for driving 15 over the speed limit. Um when the police uh did checks on his licence, it came back as endorsed as suspended. Um, my client immediately paid the $200 outstanding uh payment to reactivate his licence, but um the the um damage had already been done in the sense that he um had already been charged by police. He was um put before the Coffs Harbour local court.

He does live in Port Macquarie. So, we got the matter um transferred down to Port Macquarie. We adjourned it a couple of times, but um uh today was D-Day. We had to finalise it today. uh it was in for sentence. Um so I guess the thing with these types of fine default suspensions most of the time um it's it's not necessarily an intentional flouting of the law. It's more of an unintended or inadvertent um carelessness that has come about which is seeing someone drive while not realising their licence has been suspended due to um unpaid fines.

So for my client um earlier in the year around January the default occurred um he was running his own business at the time. He was doing vegetation management uh travelling taking contracts and travelling all over New South Wales. um he was away from home a lot. Um he was also that coincided with um him going through a separation with his ex-partner and the mother of his children. So the last year to two years has been a tumultuous period for him. Um he had to actually wind up his business about um 3 months ago.

Um uh and um actually just after the time that he was caught with this suspended driving offence. He has recently taken on a new um employment position in Sydney um for a a government body which um he leads a team in vegetation management. I won't say which body it is but um yeah certainly um he does need to drive to get to and from Sydney from Port Macquarie and also to manage um his job. He's only had that job for about 2 months now. though um he's very concerned about how he will continue to manage that without a driver's licence.

So his personal and subjective um circumstances were um very strong. He's uh been through separation. He's got two young children. He had to wrap up his business. He's got new employment. It does require him to travel and to drive for work. So these were all very strong mitigating circumstances for this matter. Um however, unfortunately the massive hurdle for him was his very very poor traffic record. He's got three prior drink driving offences. The last only being 2 years ago. He's got an couple of unlicensed drives or or one unlicensed drive and a number of fine defaults on his record.

So, um it kind of does show that even though he's uh been good over the last couple of years, he's uh stopped drinking as much. He's um uh uh quit the party lifestyle and he's focused on work and his family. Um he still has been careless in attending to his personal affairs such as his payment plans and um keeping on top of that. I did give the court a little bit of assurance that moving forward all cor correspondence and notices he's now directed to his email address so they don't go unattended or um unnoticed.

So that gave the court a little bit of assurance that um uh this will not be happening again. Now the court gave him the absolute minimum disqualification we were seeking. It was quite a bold suggestion seeking a conditional release order without conviction. Um but uh it was going to be a tough ask given his traffic record was extremely poor. Um Magistrate did jump to the next best outcome which was a 1 month minimum and considering my client's um ongoing financial circumstances um did not issue a fine.

So, a conviction was recorded, a 1-month minimum licence disqualification, and no fine was recorded um or um issued. Um so, in actual fact, a very very good outcome today, especially considering how poor our client's traffic record is. Um but certainly, he did have some very strong mitigating circumstances, which really we really needed to present to the court. Um certainly um in every case um it's uh the personal circumstances the hardships um the difficulties in a person's life is never presented to the court through the police or the prosecution.

So that's what we do. We come to court, put a package together, we touch upon different angles which help mitigate the circumstances and we present it to the court and we feel we did a pretty good job of doing that today. Um uh and that came through in the comments from the magistrate and the result that was given. It's a very happy and relieved client today and he can uh get past this month and move forward with focusing on supporting his children and working Uh, thanks for tuning in here at Port Macquarie Local Court.