TOOWOOMBA: DUI Drink Driving Whilst Unlicensed

RIDE ALONG:

Join Wiseman Lawyers Principal Solicitor Andrew Wiseman as he drives to Toowoomba Magistrates Court. On the way to court, Andrew discusses his court matter for the day.

On the way back to the office, he explains the outcome and how it was achieved.

TOOWOOMBA MAGISTRATES COURT:

Andrew Wiseman represents a client charged with DUI Drink Driving at Toowoomba Magistrates Court.

Don't lose your licence, Save Your licence. Do the wise thing. Call Wiseman Lawyers today 1300 947 352 or go to wisemanlawyers.com.au .

I'm Andrew Wiseman and welcome back to Wiseman Lawyers Court Ride Alongs, Toowoomba edition.

Does your licence need saving? Do the wise thing. Call Wiseman Lawyers. Does your licence need saving? Do the wise thing. Call the Wiseman Team at Wiseman Lawyers.

Once again I'm Andrew Wiseman, owner and Principal Solicitor of Wiseman Lawyers, Queensland's only truly dedicated traffic law firm. As I say in every episode all we do is Queensland traffic law, prevention and minimisation of loss of licence, and we only appear in courts in Queensland that said, we literally do appear at every single court in Queensland, as you'll see for the images displaying on your screen now. We will and do literally go everywhere. As I said the pictures on the screen show where we've been in recent months. I'm going to Toowoomba today. I'm back at Cairns next week, Gladstone the following week, and as I've said you name it, doesn't matter how far and wide your location is we will go to any court in Queensland.

Today, as I've said appearing at Toowoomba Magistrates court. This is the first time you guys and girls get to see the newly super charged Wiseman Lawyers Toyota 86. You'll note a dramatically different note to it to the previous episode at Maroochydore. Those who have seen all the other episodes will note that the rest of them have been in hired cars because I've had to fly to various locations throughout Queensland, but as I've said back in the Toyota 86 today and now it's got a super charger.

All right the young man who has engaged me today. He's been charged with low range DUI and driving whilst unlicensed. He's got a previous low range DUIin the last five years. As you may remember from previous episodes, if you've got a previous DUI in the last five years, that makes you ineligible to apply for a work licence. There's two reasons why today's client can't apply for a work licence. The first being that previous in the last five years. The second being that he was first suspended when he was booked. As I've already said in previous episodes, SPER is the state penalties enforcement registry. He got a ticket, thought he'd paid it, but obviously hadn't and SPER, in their goodness, suspended his licence. He never received notification of the suspension so he was caught driving whilst on a SPER suspended licence.

You'll remember from the Normanton episode that charge carries a maximum disqualification of six months, mandatory minimum one month. I am going to try and negotiate with the prosecution to get it lowered to the base level unlicensed driving charge, unlicensed simplicita. For those of you who have seen the Normanton episode, that's what happened there. I made negotiations with the police to get that charge reduced to unlicensed simplicita, and that's what I'm going to do today on the steps of court. So, worst case scenario for that charge six months, best case as it stands now is one month, but I'm going to try and get the charge reduced to a fine only. The DUI, because he's got a previous in the last, sorry I'm just going to give this cyclist the required one meter berth, there you go, because he's got  that previous in the last five years, maximum is eighteen months, best case scenario today is three months. So he's looking at a maximum for the two charges of eighteenplus six being two years and best case scenario is three plus one being four months.

I've already said he can't get a work licence because of that previous but even if he didn't have that previous, to be able to apply for a work licence you must have been the holder of a valid licence at the time that you were charged with the offence, and given that he was SPER suspended at the time that he had those charged, he wasn't the holder of a valid licence. So even if he didn't have that previous, he still would'nt have been able to apply for a work licence given that he was SPER suspended when booked. So, as I've said worst case scenario today is two years. Technically the best case scenario is four months. If I'm able to get the prosecutor to reduce the charge to unlicensed simplicita, that'll make the best case scenario for that one a fine only, meaning that would make our total best case scenario today three months.

There are a couple of other legal, not tricks but tactics I can attempt with regards to the drink driving. I'm not going to go into the details of that now but if I am able to pull those tactics off we may able to get the best case scenario reduced further. But as I say, when I'm back in the car after court I'll let you know what I did and whether or not that was successful to get the minimum reduced further again. But based on what I have to deal with at the moment, technically best case scenario four months, potentially three if I can get them to reduce that unlicensed and, yeah, I may be able to pull some legal gymnastics off to get it reduced further but as I said I'm not going to sit here and say, "I expect to get it," and I'll maintain that a mandatory minimum of four months would've been an excellent outcome given, as I said, his previous and the fact that he shouldn't have been driving in the first place. Given he was unlicensed.

All right, I've just pulled into Hume street now and once I find a park, and there's one there, I'm going to head into court and I'll let you know how it went afterwards. So, yep, I'll see you soon and let you know how we went.

Tony Ascot writes, "I cannot express how deeply grateful I am to Mr. Wiseman for the confidence he instilled in me from our first phone conversation. His knowledge and experience in traffic law are second to none. Throughout the process I was thoroughly impressed by my dealings with Andrew and his staff and would without doubt recommend his professional services to anyone, be it a drink driving charge or any other loss of licence issue. The Wiseman Lawyers team took all the stress away from me allowing me to go about my daily duties whilst they prepared everything necessary to achieve a successful court hearing and a fantastic outcome. The Wiseman Lawyers team have successfully lived up to their claim and got me back on the road again."

Job done. Client's very happy. Breaking the outcome down, with regard to the unlicensed driving I was able to persuade the prosecutors to proceed with the base level unlicensed only, so, unlicensed simplicita. So that went from a worst case scenario of six months with the best case scenario of one month to a best case scenario of a fine only, and that's exactly what I achieved. I'll explain the fines more in a moment. So for the unlicensed driving there was no loss of license. With regard to the drink driving you'll remember that I said because he had a previous in the last five years, the mandatory minimum was three months but for whatever reason that previous wasn't presented to the court. I can't explain why. And for that reason the minimum became one month and that's exactly what the magistrate gave him.

So he received a total of one month disqualification and a combined fine of $700. So $700 combined for the two charges obviously he'll have to pay the offender levy that I mentioned during the Normanton episode, it's $110, so he'll be looking at $810. So, yeah, in a nutshell $810 in fines and court fees, one month disqualification, that one month started from today's date and obviously finishes a month from today. All right that's me done Toowoomba, heading back to Brisbane now to get ready for court tomorrow. I've got a job next week back at Cairns. We've got quite a few Cairns jobs coming up at the moment. I'm not going to film another episode there because I've already done one recently at Cairns, which is on the YouTube page if you wish to view it.

But we do have one coming up at Gladstone so unless we get another matter coming up at a location prior to then, Gladstone will be the next episode. We've got another job at Blackwater, you'll see from the images at the beginning of the show that I was at Blackwater not that long ago but that was prior to us making these web shows. So there will be a December episode filmed at Blackwater, but, yeah, I'll see you again soon at Gladstone and until then, thanks for watching and take care.