Craig Stephen Cullabine, 41, pleaded guilty to 14 counts of making untrue declarations

A tradie from Adelaide’s south has been left embarrassed and slapped with thousands of dollars in fines after he lied to police to dodge traffic fines.

A southern suburbs bricklayer has been left embarrassed after lying to police about his home address, according to his lawyer.

Craig Stephen Cullabine, 41, stood in the Christies Beach Magistrate Court on Monday as he pleaded guilty to 14 counts of making untrue declarations dating back to March 2017.

In her sentencing remarks, Magistrate Lynette Duncan said Cullabine’s ploy to dodge fines was “always doomed to fail”.

She told the court that between March 1, 2017 and September 11, Cullabine falsely nominated eight people as the ones driving the vehicles at the time they were involved in various traffic offence, with some nominated more than once.

Craig Stephen Cullabine pleaded guilty to 14 counts of making untrue declarations. Picture: Facebook

“You nominated both fictitious and real people, some were overseas at the time of the offences, as well as factious or false addresses,” Magistrate Duncan said.

“The offences were detected by some of the nominated persons or recipients of the reissued expiation notices and the false addresses as well as returned to sender.

“When spoken to by police, you said you couldn’t recall making the declaration, that you never owned or driven the car in question or the declaration was true.”

Cullibine’s lawyer told the court his client was under an mass amount of stress at the time of his offending due to a relationship breakdown with his former partner while still having his children in his custody

“There’s not a great sense of sophistication in these offences and in a sense they were always doomed to fail,” Magistrate Duncan said.

Cullibine was fined $3721 for the offences.

A conviction was recorded.