#202 Cairns Dangerous Driving

Join Wiseman Lawyers Traffic Lawyer Andrew Wiseman at Cairns Magistrates Court as he represents a client charged with Dangerous Driving Operation of a Motor Vehicle. Watch Andrew explain what happened in the courtroom, along with the outcome which he achieved and how he achieved it.

All right, today I'm at Cairns Magistrates Court. Client was charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. Basically they drove a B-double down the Gillies Range, which is over length, and he caused a great deal of disruption on that stretch of road. Someone filmed it, uploaded it to Facebook and he was then subsequently charged. So it was dangerous driving.

Basically, we were instructed to enter a plea of not guilty. I had to engage a barrister, but over the last few months we've been making multiple submissions to police to try and get them to downgrade the charge to careless driving. So dangerous driving is a criminal offence with a criminal conviction, mandatory minimum six months disqualification, whereas careless driving's a traffic offence. There's no mandatory minimum. So technically, if you were to get careless driving, you can get a fine only, but again, starting point was dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

I made a submission myself in February. My barrister made a submission in March. We continued putting pressure on Prosecutions in this regard for a number of reasons, primarily because we didn't believe it was dangerous. Yes, it was careless, but in our view, dangerous driving was a bit of a overreach.

So it was listed for a trial today. So it was a plea of not guilty, and today was going to be a one or two day trial arguing and defending the charge. But at the 11th hour, literally on the steps of court, Prosecutions have conceded that careless driving was the appropriate disqualification. So the charge was amended this morning in front of the magistrate. We then entered a plea of guilty to that charge. The barrister, based on my instructions, ultimately was able to persuade the magistrate to give a fine only. So there was no loss of licence, no disqualification. He got a fine only and no conviction recorded. So what was dangerous driving, which would've been a no less than six months disqualification and a criminal conviction, was now a traffic conviction. No disqualification, fine only, no conviction recorded. Client's obviously relieved, very happy. This has been dragging out for several months, about eight or nine months. He's very happy.

I'm Andrew Wiseman at Cairns Magistrates Court. Thanks for watching.