Posts Categorized: Traffic Law

The Defence of Automatism: No Criminal Responsibility for Unconscious and Unforeseeable Conduct

Driver Asleep

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim At 4.51 am on 19 December 2019, Nicholas Parker was driving his father’s car along Kurrajong Road in the NSW town of Richmond, when the 19-year-old apprentice electrician fell asleep, veered across to the other side of the road and hit two cyclists riding along the shoulder of the… Read more »

Reductions in Penalties for Driving Whilst Suspended or Disqualified Have Not Increased Offending

NSW driver licence in wallet

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim A 2013 NSW parliamentary report into the laws then applying to unauthorised driving found that cases were clogging up the NSW Local Court, penalties were disproportionately steep with no discretion to curb their severity, and their impact was causing havoc within the community. In response, the Berejiklian government passed… Read more »

Personal Factors Cannot Affect the Objective Seriousness of an Offence

Unequal scales of justice

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Moustaffa Zreika was driving a 6.5 tonne Hino Tipper truck down Burnett Street in Sydney’s Merrylands on 22 July 2017, when the vehicle crossed the double lines down the centre of the road, whilst attempting a slight left-hand bend. The truck sideswiped an oncoming car and then continued down… Read more »

Judges Must Explicitly Consider a Clean Record When Sentencing

Supreme Court building

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Just after 3am on 21 March 2015, Waqar Ul-Hassan was driving Muhammad Ijaz, Hashim Manzoor and Mohammed Aslam back to his place on Merrylands Road, after they’d all spent a night at a friend’s house in Styles Place, Merrylands. The Pakistani national, who was residing in Australia on a… Read more »

Sydney Lawyer Struck Off for Making False Declarations Regarding Driving Offences

Woman lawyer

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim In August 2013, a courier driver sought legal advice from Sydney lawyer Ms Jinhi Kim regarding ten traffic infringement penalty notices he’d received. The pair met, and Ms Kim told her client that she’d write to the State Debt Recovery Office stating he was not the driver. The lawyer… Read more »

Driver Acquitted Despite Drugs Being Found in Car

Drugs in car

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim At around 9.30 one morning, NSW police officers were at a flat on Murray Street in Port Macquarie investigating an incident, when the phone rang. An officer answered and told the caller the occupant wasn’t home. The caller rang again two minutes later. This time, the officer recognised the… Read more »