No Conviction for Use Mobile Phone While Driving Offence

Astor Legal last week appeared at Gosford Local Court for a 19-year-old man who was facing a 3 month suspension for exceeding his demerit points by a use mobile phone while driving offence.

Our client was an apprentice electrician. He had recently taken out a loan to purchase a ute so that he could carry his tools with him from job site to job site.

As part of his job he was required to be on the road 5 days a week. While driving he would receive phone calls and text messages and developed a bad habit of checking it.

Unfortunately, the offence occurred during a double demerits long weekend and it took him over his demerit point limit.

He elected to have the offence determined at Court and came to us concerned that a loss of licence would lead to him losing his job. We immediately got to work preparing.

We obtained a letter from his employer detailing tat he would lose his job if he did not have a licence. We also obtained a letter from his grandparents’ GP which set out that they required him to drive them to their medical appointments.

He also completed the Traffic Offenders Program and penned a detailed apology letter based on our character reference and apology letter guide.

At Court the Magistrate dismissed a number of similar licence appeals for people with similar offences. Despite this, we were able to persuade the Magistrate that he had a strong need for a licence and had significant responsibilities which he required his licence for.

In the result, the Magistrate dismissed the charge pursuant to Section 10(1)(a) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999. This means that there was no conviction recorded for the offence and as such, no penalty or demerit points.

As such, our client faces no suspension at all and can continue to drive.