Dismissed

This was me last July cruising through a school speed zone, covered in detail here. Well, after a number of false starts I finally had my day in court yesterday.

Armed with a solicitor I managed to score a Section 10 which means that despite a guilty plea, the Magistrate accepted my defence of 'honest and reasonable mistake'. It also helped presenting a driving record of only five offences over the past 17 years, and wearing a suit!

Thus the offence was dismissed and no conviction recorded. Also the fine and court costs were waived. Now the bad news. The legislation(27) stipulates that the demerit points must stand...

NSW legislation specifies that demerit points must be recorded on your traffic record for all offences where the Court finds you guilty irrespective of whether or not you've been convicted.

Doesn't matter, I'm happy with the judgement which I hope to post a transcript later. After two hours I was out of there and headed straight for a family funeral. What a day.

Comments

[John McCartney]

Nice one.
Pity about the points though.

[PQ]

Well done Adrian (and solicitor).
Always nice to beat the system occasionally.

BTW, +1 on wearing a smart suit to court. Magistrates seem to take a dim view of miscreants in grubby T-shirts, jeans or similar.

I had to wait around for a couple of hours at the Petty Sessions recently, and it seemed to me that the beak was less than impressed with those who appeared before him looking unkempt if they had not been in custody overnight.

Smart suited, clean shaven etc "villains" got a markedly better run than the grubby ones.

[Turner Mitteron]

Isn't that an old joke?

Q. What do you call a well dressed cab driver?
A. The defendant.

[Rainer the cabbie]

Thank you Turner for explaining the dress code of Silver service drivers to the general public. Looks like they swapped their Lawyer for a GPS device, but I bet it doesn't keep them out of trouble.

[peter perfect]

5 offences in the last 17 years .i'm surprised the beak thought that was a good record.

[adrian]

Too funny, Turner M. Of course it's a Kiwi joke but I'll pay your version.
Peter Perfect, even funnier.
Rainer, have just received a Navman with audio camera warnings from a concerned son. One more camera offence will result in a 3 month suspension.