AZTECH

Does anyone know where you can find out any information on NSW traffic offences and penalties. I have been fined nearly $500 just for having an unregistered car PARKED out the front of my house before I got it towed. The fine stated 'use unregistered vehicle on road related area'.

Now bugger me but $500 sounds like the sort of fine you would get for doing donuts in an unregistered car, or low range drink driving.

I have looked on the RTA web site etc and all you get is very generic information. It seems strange that the only people who have access to EXACTLY what constitutes an offence and its penalties are the police. Well I'll stand rooted if I just trust them to get it right.

Any help would be appreciated.

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Thought it was time to try a turbo for a change :)

TheKing

Theres a lot of laws like that, whichs is a crock of **** - left up to the discretion of the police.
I got defected earlier this year for my car being too loud, too low and needing new tyres. Funny thing was I'd been pulled over the day before for a spot check and specifically asked the officer if my tyres were ok, he told me "They're fine, but you'll need new ones in a few months by the look of it." Next night I got pulled over and a lovely yellow sticker slapped on my windscreen. Its the same with rims sizes, some cops say you can go +2" on standard, others have told me that as long as the rolling diametre does not change hugely its fine. They need clearly defined laws so we know wtf we are meant to do and not be told something is fine one day and then be fined for it the next.

EA S

AZTECH

I'm in Victoria so I'm not familiar with details of your legislation, but here are your starting points. Go to

http://www.austlii.edu.au

Click on NSW, then Consolidated Acts, then alphabetical list, then R, then Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Act, then Section18, where, behold!, you are in the sh*t.

Terms that are defined in legislation are usually in the first few sections or regs of the relevant law, but they can also be at the start of parts or divisions or just in a given section. "Use" may be defined somewhere. May be in another of the various transport acts and applies to all, or in regs if it's reg offence. Definition of use would probably need to extend to park or leave in road related area (which term is also defined) to catch you, otherwise it would have to be proved that you personally used the car when it was unregistered by driving it to where it was found. Probably a provision somewhere making the last registered owner liable, but you should find this as there may be exceptions that would help you.


There's also a similar offence in the Regulations. Don't know how your lot do it up there, but the penalty notice (which is what I assume you got as it's a fixed fine) should have a code number or reference to help you identify what you've been charged under, although that isn't easy to do if you don't know where to find things.

The penalty in the Act and Regs is 20 penalty units max.

Section 17 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedures) Act says a penalty unit is $110, so the max fine is $2,200.

As you've apparently got a $500 fixed fine, there'll be legislation somewhere, probably in the regs under one of the transport acts, setting out fixed fines for various offences.

MrPlow2

EA S said what i was gonna say.
i use austlii at work and it's a great point of reference.

the thing is, if the car was parked on the road you're rooted! if it was in the driveway... hmmm... well, it IS a road related area if i remember well, but it's private property. i don't know, i'm just guessing here.

if there is no concrete definition of a term in an Act, try calling the cops up and see if they have a ruling to cover that. i mean, you can always challenge something if it's not explicitly stated in an Act.