Sherrif's suck, and here's why

[Lee Cardan]

I just posted this on Facebook, but thought I'd share my recent experience with you guys too
Here's how it's audio related! imagine you're driving a tour / gig van or truck, loaded with gear and this happens:


I was driving the the other day and came to a Sheriff / Police check with license plate recognition. My license plate triggered something and I was instructed to pull over. They took my drivers license and came back telling me I had $3500 in unpaid fines against two company cars (it's my company), as well as $3800 in unpaid personal fines. I've never once received any correspondence regarding these amounts

So for the personal fines, I was given a Seven Day Notice which means my drivers license would be suspended if I failed to take any action in the next week. I went to the Infringements Court where I was treated like a piece of shit, and given a list of the offenses. 16 out of 17 offenses are for driving an UN-REGISTERED vehicle in a toll zone, starting in 10/2007 till 06/2008. With late fees, and all at the warrant stage, that comes up to $3600. What I noticed is the address they had me at was an old one. So I just got off the phone with VicRoads and in fact I changed my address 2 days after the lease ended at the old place I was renting. All these fines were sent to the old address, 8 months after I updated the address with VicRoads. And more to the point, that vehicle has never been unregistered (or had its registration suspended) from 2003 till 2011!! So that's good, shouldn't have happened but with plenty of proof on my side I should be able to get these removed

But the company fines were a different matter
Fyi, A company is its own entity and can be considered to be another person for this case, so my personal and company matters are totally unrelated.

With company registered vehicles, you don't get a fine, you get a nomination statement and need to nominate a driver. Failure to disclose the driver get a $600 penalty so it was only 4 offenses, but coupled with late fees and non-nomination fees it came to $3500. Once again, all due to an incorrect address on their system. Thing is, they were sending me reminder notices to the old address, while they were sending me new fine notices to the new address - you'd think they'd kind of figure it out?

Anyway, that day they felt like being a little harder on company directors, so even though I was given 7 days to sort out my personal matters, I was given zero time to sort out the company matters. If I could not pay the company debt then and there (oh yeah, they had their own EFTPOS facilities on site), they would clamp my car and sell it in two days. There were two other vehicles that were clamped already and the owners looking pretty sour, so I figured better I just be on my way and I can sort this out later. I'd be happy to pay the fines but not the late / warrant / non-nomination fees (all up around $3k).

But here's the kicker, because I paid, the matter is now closed and there is no way for me to argue it. They gave me a choice of either loosing my van then and there, or here's a little eftpos facility so you can give us money with no chance of ever getting it back, regardless if we were right or wrong, and I can F@#$ing prove you ARE wrong! And all in the first hour I've ever heard anything about it

[NYMo]

Jesuz Lee..that tough..got to hate authority ( I do)

Cheers

[Chinagraf]

Note to self - catch tram to court in future.

[rob]

" better get a lawyer, son, better get a real good one " - tex

[stosostu]

Sounds like a justifiable case for review by the Ombudsman, there's no such thing as a fine without the ability to to have it reviewed by the Small Claims Tribunal. I would suggest they have been giving you the run around, as they will unless you know the letter of the law, and even then they are loath to back down, unles you have your Baristers silks in the car.

[jkhuri44]

The pigs suck a fat hairy one, at least you aren't Arabic/Middle Eastern and pulled up by cops TWICE, suspected for the big T word, im sure you can guess what is. This happened to me, true story, back when N9ne 11ven was the hot shit.
I feel for you Lee.

[walding]

Shit lee.

Beers on me next time we catch up is all I can say.

[gigpiglet]

i had a (sort of) similar one
not similar in the offence, but in the "this is the situation right now that you have to deal with"
i took it to court after the fact and won the shit out of it (sixty bucks in court fees)
a lot of hassle, but if you have the case you say you do - then take it to court for sure
its a waste of everyones (yours, and every other taxpayers) money, but better than being stung for something unreasonable.

[cLoudBase]

Stuff that... if you had proof why pay.
Shake down , legal blackmail , not sure if you can sign your rights away under intimidation.
Stand tall & hold your nerve.
Call a lawyer
F$^*k Them

[Lee Cardan]

Believe me Matt if I knew I had any proof I wouldn't have paid a cent, but the fact is I didn't even realise that till I started investigating the personal thing today and joined the dots. So, I'll get all my things together and appeal it as best I can, but at the end of the day I've got far more important things to deal with so I'll give it what it's worth to me and just see how it goes. But that's only regard the commercial side of it, the personal side I'll go as far as necessary

I had a chat to a friend, and he knows someone who the same thing just happened to
I just wanted to put the word out and express my distaste to how i was dealt with

[Lee Cardan]

And thanks for the thoughts everyone
Jamil that sounds especially crap, my dad is Lebanese and he's been through a bit of it too, but nothing to that extent

Mark, beer would be great and necessary right about now!

[cLoudBase]

Yes, I see from your posts you've got a lot going on, you certainly didn't need this thrown in the mix.
Stay strong brother & go forward.

All the Best
Matt

[walding]

And thanks for the thoughts everyone
Jamil that sounds especially crap, my dad is Lebanese and he's been through a bit of it too, but nothing to that extent

Mark, beer would be great and necessary right about now!

Lee at this point I have a rare week off, so when ur free one night gives us a yell.