A man from Paddington was randomly pulled over by police for committing a traffic infringement. After completing a registration check, police found out that our client was driving his vehicle whilst his licence was cancelled. He was charged with ‘Drive while licence cancelled’ and requested to front Waverley Local Court in October 2023.
Not only does the offence hold a maximum term of imprisonment, but a person can be automatically disqualified from driving on the road for up to 6 months.
In NSW, a person would be declared a ‘Habitual Traffic Offender’ where they had committed at least three major traffic offences within 5 years. Due to onerous disqualification periods that a person would face, Parliament allowed for applications to the court seeking to quash the declarations.
Our client had a very lengthy traffic history spanning from the nineties. He was declared a Habitual Traffic Offender, which was thereafter quashed by the courts in 2018.
After having his Habitual Traffic Offender Declaration quashed some 5 years earlier, he immediately assumed that he was able to drive again. Unfortunately, his obligations were to contact Service NSW to complete the relevant testing and pass their requirements before being able to drive again. Our client was unaware that his licence was cancelled as a result and had been driving for the past 5 years.
Our Principal Lawyer immediately advised our client and began preparing numerous materials that would assist to show his need for a licence and impact on his employment. The police facts were also negotiated in a way that was more favourable to our client on sentence.
On the day of court, a Plea of Guilty was entered and a bundle of defence materials were tendered to the court. Our Principal Lawyer made numerous submissions to the court, including the positive steps our has taken since the quashing of his habitual offenders declaration namely the fact that, despite he shouldn’t have been driving, he had not committed one single traffic offence over the past 5 years.
Despite the facts that our client used to be a habitual traffic offender, has been convicted of 8 offences previously and has received the benefit of no criminal record on an occasion in court before, our Principal Lawyer was able to convince the magistrate of Waverley Local Court not to record a conviction and disqualification for this offence too.
Against all odds, our client achieved the best possible outcome and was given an opportunity to continue his improved driving.
