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Charged with driving unlicensed, whilst suspended, disqualified or cancelled? The legislation has changed.

As of Saturday 28 October 2017, there has been significant changes to the Road Transport Act which changes how the court can sentence people charged with unauthorised driving offences,...

Janelle Tarabay

As of Saturday 28 October 2017, there has been significant changes to the Road Transport Act which changes how the court can sentence people charged with unauthorised driving offences, namely, people who have been charged driving unlicensed, whilst suspended, driving whilst disqualified or driving whilst cancelled.

What has changed?

There are three key changes that the court will now be implementing:

  1. Reduction in maximum penalty: If you have been charged with an offence, you now face a lesser maximum penalty. This means that the court is restricted in how much they can fine you, or in worst case, send you to gaol for. It is important to remember that a maximum penalty is reserved for the most serious of offenders and it is not common for you to receive this maximum penalty. A maximum penalty tells the court how serious the offence is.

If you have been charged with:

  • Drive unlicensed you now face a maximum fine of $2,200 only and cannot be sent to gaol.
  • Drive never licenced for the first time, you now only face a maximum fine of $2,200 and no gaol time. However, if it is your second offence, you face a maximum fine of $3,300 and can go to gaol for 6 months.
  • Driving Whilst Suspended
  • Driving Whilst Disqualified or Driving Whilst Cancelled and it is your first offence you face a maximum fine of $3,300 and can go to gaol for 6 months.
  • Driving Whilst Suspended, Driving Whilst Disqualified or Driving Whilst Cancelled and it is your second offence you face a maximum fine of $5,500 and can go to gaol for 12 months.
  • Drive whilst cancelled or suspended due to fines, if it is your first offence the maximum fine if $3,300 and you cannot be sent to gaol. However, if it is your second offence the maximum fine is $5,500 and you can be sent to gaol for 6 months.
  1. Reduction in Disqualification periods: For all offences of the above type, the court is also required on convicting you, to impose a period where you are disqualified from driving. This period used to be quite harsh and involved people spending a mandatory 1 or 2 years off the road without any room to reduce it.

This has now changed. Not only has the maximum disqualification periods been significantly reduced, there is no longer mandatory periods. There are automatic periods of disqualification which can be reduced to minimum periods. However, automatic periods do not mean maximum, and the court does have discretion to increase it.If you have been charged with:

  • Drive unlicensed or Drive never licenced (first offence) there is no disqualification period.
  • Drive never licenced (second offence) there is an automatic period of 12 months which can be reduced to a minimum period of 3 months.
  • Driving Whilst Suspended, Driving Whilst Disqualified or Driving Whilst Cancelled and it is your first offence there is an automatic period of 6 months and a minimum period of 3 months.
  • Driving Whilst Suspended, Driving Whilst Disqualified or Driving Whilst Cancelled and it is your second offence there is an automatic period of 12 months and a minimum period of 6 months.
  • Drive whilst cancelled or suspended due to fines, if it is your first offence there is an automatic period of 3 months with a minimum period of 1 month. However, if it is your second offence the automatic period is 12 months with a minimum of 3 months.
  1. Repeat offenders: If you have been charged and convicted of multiple unauthorised driving offences, the disqualification period you received would only start after you had finished the previous one. This meant you could be disqualified for a significant period.

Further, if you had committed 3 offences within 5 years, an automatic 5 years would be placed on top of your disqualification period as you were considered a Habitual Traffic Offender.

This has now changed, specifically:

  • If you are convicted and disqualified, your disqualification period starts on the day you are convicted, NOT after previous disqualification periods are finished. This means you can serve multiple disqualification periods at one time
  • If you commit 3 offences in 5 years you no longer receive an extra 5 years disqualification period as the Habitual Traffic Offenders Declaration has been abolished.

These changes are positive for people who have committed unauthorised driving offences as it means they are able to get back onto the road quicker.

If you have recently been charged with one of these offences and are due to be sentenced, please contact us on (02) 9025 9888 or at info@streetonlawyers.com.au to discuss the impact of these changes on you.

If you are someone who has already received a Habitual Traffic Offender Declaration, we can also assist in applying to have it removed.

Photo by Malte Luk