Unlicensed
driving in
Victoria
-
Driving
while
Suspended
-
Driving
while
Disqualified
-
Unlicensed
Driving
Road Safety Act Section 30 Offence to drive while disqualified etc.
(1)
Subject to section 30AA, a person must not drive a motor vehicle on a
highway while the authorisation granted to him or her to do so under
this Part is suspended or during a period of disqualification from
obtaining such an authorisation.
Penalty:
For a first offence, 30 penalty units or imprisonment for 4 months;
For a subsequent offence, 240 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years.
Since 1 May 2011 there is no longer any
mandatory imprisonment applicable for this offence no matter what the
date of the offence was.
Driving
Whilst Suspended law.
Drive
while suspended lawyer. Suspended
driving legal advice. suspended
licence.
A
drivers licence can be suspended in
many different ways. If a court
finds you guilty of any traffic
offence (other than drink driving
and dangerous driving) it has power
to suspend your drivers licence. The
usual ways in which a licence is
suspended are as follows:
Your
licence could be suspended by a court, by a traffc infringement notice,
by the police or by VicRoads. If you are disqualified from driving in
another state VicRoads is required to suspend your Victorian drivers
licence until the interstate disqualification period ends.
It
is an offence to drive most motorised
vehicles on a road or in a public place if your
licence has been
suspended.
When police
intercept a vehicle often the first thing they do is conduct a licence check to
determine whether the driver has a current and valid licence. Many
police have on-board computers that enable them to look up a database
of licence holders and registration details. As the police drive along
a road, they will input registration plate numbers into the computer
and if the registered owner is a suspended or disqualified driver, they
will intercept the vehicle to make further inquiries. The police also
set up APNR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) digital camera systems
scanning number plates of vehicles that pass by. So if you are
thinking of driving whilst suspended or whilst disqualified, your
chances of getting caught these days have increased significantly.
Sometimes
suspended drivers have been known to
state a false name and address after
being intercepted. This is also an
offence and just makes things
worse.
Effect of licence
suspension
A
person whose licence has been suspended is unable to use the licence
for any purpose until the period of suspension has expired. Once the
suspension ends, the person can resume driving provided their licence
is current. There is no need to take any step in order to be able to
resume driving after the suspension period ends - i.e. no courses or
tests to do or any fees to pay. The licence you had at the time the
suspension commenced will simply resume. Probationery licence holders
will have their probationary period extended by 6 months plus the
suspension period.
It is a serious offence to drive any motor vehicle (whether or not it is registerable, such as most motorised scooters) on
a road or road related area (e.g. car park, bike track, 4WD track)
while your licence or permit is suspended. You can not supervise a
learner driver if your drivers licence is suspended. You can not use a
suspended licence to drive in another state, and you are disqualified
from obtaining a
new licence during the period of suspension. For interstate licence
holders, a Victorian court or a Victorian law is not able to suspend a
licence issued in another state, but Victorian law can disqualify you
from obtaining a Victorian licence which effectively stops you from
driving in Victoria during the period of disqualification.
Penalties for driving whilst
suspended
s.30
Road Safety Act 1986
First
offence: Up to $4000 fine, or up to
4 months imprisonment.
Second
or subsequent offence: Up to $27,000 fine, or up to
24 months imprisonment.
Typical
outcomes for a first offence is a
conviction and fine of about $1000 and 1 to 6
months additional licence suspension
- I have seen people get 12 months
extra when poorly represented, although it is possible to avoid any extra licence loss period.
A typical
sentence for a second offence is a conviction and fine, or one month
imprisonment wholly suspended for a period of 12 months, with some
further licence suspension. During the suspended period of a jail
term you must not commit any offence which is punishable by
imprisonment otherwise it is extremely likely that the suspended jail
term will be restored, which means you will serve the term of
imprisonment in jail, in addition to any other sentence imposed in
respect of the offence that breached the suspended sentence.
Usually my client's goal is to ensure that any additional licence loss period is kept to a
minimum if not avoid it completely, as well as avoid convictions, large
fines, community work or imprisonment.
Defences
to driving whilst
suspended
All
of the legal process defences which
are available in all traffic
offences are available in drive
whilst suspended cases. Other ways
of defending these charges involve
challenging the legitimacy of the
suspension, or having the suspension
reversed, having the court accept
you were not driving a motor
vehicle, or the prosecution may be
unable to prove that you knew that
your drivers licence was suspended
at the time of driving. As this
offence is punishable by
imprisonment, it is common for
people to try to avoid prison by
pleading guilty rather than risk
damaging their chances by pleading
not guilty.
If you were
unaware that your licence had been suspended and the charge is
dismissed on that basis, the court can require you to serve the portion
of your licence suspension period that you failed to serve because you
were unaware of the suspension. s.30A
Road Safety Act 1986
Legal Representation
A person
facing charges of driving whilst disqualified will eventually be
charged on summons and will have to go to court at which point legal
representation is recommended. The total cost of legal representation
for a plea of guilty to driving while suspended is usually within the
range $1400 to $2000, and can be higher if you have many prior
offences or you have a poor driving history. If the case is handled
properly the risk of getting sentenced to a term of imprisonment is
quite low, especially if it is your first offence. None of my
clients have ever gone to prison purely for driving while suspended.
However, some have gone to
prison because the offence of
driving while suspended breached an
earlier suspended term of
imprisonment, or they were also
drunk at the time or had an
accident.
Driving
Whilst Disqualified Drive
while disqualfied law and
advice
Any
person who loses their licence for a
drink driving offence or a dangerous
driving offence will find that their
licence is cancelled (not suspended)
and they are disqualified from
obtaining a licence for a fixed
period of time. You can become a
disqualified person by order of a
court or by a traffic infringement
notice. A person who drives a motor
vehicle on a road during a period
when they are disqualified from
obtaining a licence commits this
offence.
Effect
of disqualification
A person
who is disqualified from obtaining a licence is unable to drive during
the period of disqualification. Once the disqualification period ends,
the person will not be able to drive until they apply for a new
licence. Holders of interstate drivers licences and overseas licences
can also be disqualified from driving in Victoria (alternatively -
disqualified from obtaining a Victorian licence) for any traffic
offence and they certainly will be disqualified if they are found
guilty of drink driving or dangerous driving in Victoria.
Penalties
for driving whilst
disqualified
s.30
Road Safety Act 1986
First
offence: Up to $4000 fine, or up to
4 months imprisonment.
Second
or subsequent offence: Up to $27,000 fine, or up to
24 months imprisonment.
Typical
outcomes for a first offence is a conviction and
fine of about $800 and an
additional 1 to 4 months
disqualification.
A typical penalty
for a second offence is a conviction and fine of $1000, alternatively one months
imprisonment wholly suspended for a
period of 12 months, with an additional
licence loss period of 1 - 6 months.
The
court has options to fine the accused, order the accused to
perform community work, order
imprisonment, and it also has the
power to further suspend the accused's drivers licence for as
long as the court thinks fit.
Jail terms come in 4 different varieties. The lowest form is a suspended jail term. During
the suspended period of a jail term you must not commit any offence
which is punishable by imprisonment otherwise it is extremely likely
that the suspended jail term will be restored, which means you will
serve the term of imprisonment in jail, in addition to any other
sentence imposed in respect of the offence that breached the suspended
sentence.
A
jail term can also be served as an intensive corrections order, which
means you do not have to spend the period in prison provided you
perform an average of 12 hours of community work per week during the
whole of the term of imprisonment. The other alternatives are
home detention which some people might be eligible for, or real jail
time.
In many
cases, if the matter is handled properly, it is possible to avoid
extending the licence disqualification period, avoid any type of term
of imprisonemnt or having to perform community work, avoid large fines
or having
a conviction recorded.
Defences
to driving whilst
disqualfiied
All
of the legal process defences which
are available in all traffic
offences are available in drive
whilst disqualified cases. Other
ways of defending these charges
involve challenging the legitimacy
of the disqualification (which is
usually difficult as it is often founded on a court order), or
having the disqualification
reversed, having the court accept
you were not driving a motor
vehicle, or showing that you had no
knowledge that you were disqualified
at the time of driving. As this
offence is punishable by
imprisonment, it is common for
people to try to avoid prison by
pleading guilty rather than risk
damaging their chances by pleading
not guilty.
Legal
Representation
A person
facing charges of driving whilst disqualified will eventually be
charged on summons and will have to go to court at which point legal
representation is recommended. The total cost of legal representation
for a plea of guilty to driving while disqualified is typically within
the range $1400 to $2000, and sometimes higher if you have many prior
offences or are facing numerous other charges . If it is your first
offence, the chance of going to prison is very low. If it is not your
first offence the chance of spending time
in prison is low if the case is handled properly. A suspended
jail term or an intensive corrections order can be imposed instead of
imprisonment. None of my clients have ever gone to prison simply
for
driving while disqualified. However, some have gone to prison because
their driving while disqualified breached an earlier suspended term of
imprisonment, or they committed other serious driving offences at the
same time as driving whilst disqualified.
Driving
whilst unlicensed legal
advice
If
you do not have a licence to drive a
motor vehicle in Victoria, and you
are not exempt from holding one, you
are not permitted to drive a motor
vehicle on any public road. People
who commit this offence usually fall
into one of the following
categories:
- Those
who have never held any drivers
licence.
- Those
whose licence was cancelled or
expired and they failed to restore
their licence
- People
who hold a licence issued in another
state or country buthave failed to
obtain a Victorian
licence.
- People
who do not hold a licence for the
category of vehicle they are driving
or riding (i.e. driving a truck on a
car licence)
Penalties
for driving whilst
unlicensed
s.18
Road Safety Act 1986
If
you have previously held a licence
and it has not been cancelled: Uo to $1400 fine,
or up to one month imprisonment.
All
other cases: Up to $2800 fine, or up
to 3 months imprisonment.
Defences
to driving whilst
unlicenced
All
of the legal process defences which
are available in all traffic
offences are available in drive
while unlicenced cases. It is also a
defence if the court is satisfied
that at the time of driving the accused had an honest and
reasonable belief that they were
licenced to drive a motor
vehicle.
Related
Pages:
Fines
Court
Process
Relicencing
applications
Immediate
Licence Suspensions
court
representation by traffic lawyer
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