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Originally Posted by Rodp
I think you've got that the wrong way around unless something has changed recently. The infringement is sent to the owner of the vehicle, it's up to the owner to nominate the driver of the vehicle at the time if they weren't the driver. The court doesn't need to determine anything.
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It happened to someone I know in WA. They weren't charged at all for the speeding offence (something like 50 over in a 100 zone) they were charged under section 58A for failing to take reasonable measures to identify who was driving the vehicle they were responsible for. It cost them a bit over $700 but there was no speeding offence against their name or demerit points, that charge was completely dropped by the police before it even went to court.
The reason they brought the section 58A law in over in WA was apparently because John Hughes (major car dealer) had a lot of apprentices getting caught & he was saying he didn't know who was driving & the culprits were getting off scot free. So they introduced the law to ensure that even if they couldn't get their licence they'd still get the money.
As far as I can see QLD law is the same - the responsibility is on the driver so I guess they can still fine you if you can't disprove the speeding offence but I very much doubt they could take your licence or give demerit points unless they prove who was driving.
An interesting point in the case I mentioned is that the junior officer who issued the infringement essentially lied to the owner & told him he would lose his licence if he couldn't nominate another driver. It was obviously just a scare tactic because he rang the station and spoke to a senior constable who was very good about it & told him that they didn't have a basis to issue a charge without the identity of the driver.
So in response to the
OP yes they can issue you with a fine in the manner you described but there are a fair few ways out of it. Smart lawyers get people off similar stuff quite often although it depends if you want to pay 2-3-4 times the money to the lawyer to keep your points.