Letters

Extremely unfair and excessive

Ed,

I wish to express my disappointment with the new car registration system whereby registration stickers on your car window are now obsolete. I strongly feel that the old system needs to return.

My son has recently been fined due to not receiving a notice in the mail, and being unaware his car was out of rego. He was pulled over and given an infringement notice – resulting in THREE penalties of almost $700 each – almost $2,000 for this unintentional breach: more than a speeding fine for intentionally breaking the law and endangering lives. This seems extremely unfair and excessive and the Police appear to be simply gouging money from good drivers. He could have been given a warning, or a period of time to register before the fines came into effect. It is a new system after all and has this flaw whereby people can be unaware they are unregistered.

My son is on a Disability Pension and cannot afford $2,000. He is extremely law abiding and a safe driver and has never had any fines or demerit points in his 15 years of driving. We appealed this fine but received a reply from NSW Revenue denying any leniency. Since this has happened other friends have told me of similar experiences.

If anyone else has had a similar experience could you please put pressure on the government to return registration stickers on car windows, as this new system seems to have been purposely designed to simply raise revenue for the government.

Jenni McIndoe, Woombah