BEENLEIGH: Unlicensed Driving SPER Suspended Repeat Offender

I drove down to Beenleigh Magistrates Court this morning to represent a client charged with Unlicensed Driving Whilst SPER Suspended, or Suspended Driving.

SPER stands for State Penalties Enforcement Registry.

When a person neglects to pay moneys owing to SPER, SPER can and usually will suspend the person’s driver’s licence.

A lot of the time these suspension letters are sent but not received.

Unfortunately, the as it stands at the writing of this article deems the suspension notice to be served upon posting.

There is therefore no defence to this charge on the basis of not having received the suspension notice.

The client was a repeat unlicensed driver, having previously been charged unlicensed driving on 3 previous occasions. However, for whatever reason, the client was not formally charged as a Repeat Offender.

The client faced a maximum penalty of a 6 month driver’s licence disqualification, 1 year imprisonment and 40 penalty units.

At the time of writing this, a penalty unit in Queensland is worth $113.85.

I had my client attend a reformatory course which went some way to convince the Magistrate that my client had woken up to himself.

I tendered a number of character references which were based on a template which I had provided the client.

I was ready to refer to the relevant case law and legislation, and I spoke at length about the difficulties which would occur if the was to receive a lengthy disqualification

I was able to persuade the Magistrate to hand down the mandatory minimum 1 month licence disqualification.

The client was very happy.

Regards

Andrew Wiseman, Wiseman Lawyers