Hi guys,
Last night my sister got pulled over and fined $850 for a 50 day expired registration. It seems her registration bill was being sent to an email at a previous place of employment that wasn't forwarded on.
Obviously this is her fault for (a) not thinking to change her email address (or not sending it to a private address to begin with), and (b) not realising that she hadn't paid for a rego refresh 2 months later than she normally would have.
However these do seem like minor oversights and an $850 fine seems pretty severe, when you get a lesser fine for doing >30km/h over the limit.
She's 39 years old, has paid rego on time since she was 18 years old, has a pretty clean driving record and ironically she works as a volunteer driving instructor for disadvantaged youths.
I'm just wondering if you guys think there's any merit in contesting it (or asking for a reduced fine)?
Edit: New information has come in.
She'd opted out of postal mail notification, and was just receiving email reminders/payment information, which she was set to receive in her personal mail.
As a driving instructor you have to put down your instructor details down when the kids go for their tests. Because of this, her previous employer had set all of that to their business details, including email, which is where her rego would have been sent.
As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.
At least she has a job. $850 would be pretty bad for someone on a fixed pension.