Kylie Lang: Where’s the fairness in Ezra Mam’s $850 fine?
Ezra Mam drives without a licence and with cocaine in his blood, and gets an $850 fine for a crash that injured a four-year-old, while drivers using phones cop $1200. Where’s the fairness, asks Kylie Lang.
Kylie Lang
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Let me get this straight, Brisbane Broncos star Ezra Mam gets behind the wheel of a car without a licence and with illicit substances including cocaine in his bloodstream, and gets an $850 fine.
The crash he was in with an Uber driver on October 18 injured a four-year-old child.
Everyday Queenslanders who also make stupid decisions by using their mobile phone while driving are slugged $1200.
Where’s the fairness in that?
Mam’s punishment after he pleaded guilty in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday to driving without a licence and driving while relevant drug present in blood seems paltry.
And for someone on Mam’s salary – a $4m contract over five years – $850 is peanuts.
It’s also groundhog day.
Queenslanders have already had a gutful of football players escaping restrictions during Covid lockdowns that magically didn’t apply to them under the Palaszczuk government.
And here we are again.
Yes, Mam appeared contrite in court, and vowed outside to “work on being a better person”, but so the 21-year-old should.
So everyone should when they stuff up.
It shouldn’t take criminal charges to put a person on a better path.
In sentencing, magistrate Mark Nolan told Mam on “so many levels you are fortunate to stand where you are today … you could have been injured or killed”.
“There’s no place for illicit drugs in our community, and there’s certainly no place for a person who is using illicit drugs to get behind the wheel of a car.
“You’ve got to learn from this.”
Mam was also disqualified from driving for six months. No conviction was recorded.
I’m sure Mam is hugely relieved – and I don’t wish him any ill-will.
But to my mind, he was let off with a slap on the wrist.
kylie.lang@news.com.au
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