Yeppoon court dodger’s humongous sum of unpaid fines

A defendant who has repeatedly failed to appear and allegedly ignored police directions had racked up a five-figure SPER debt.

James Michael Nugent

A man with a repeated history of not showing up to court or paying fines was not allowed to have his failure to appear charge adjourned.

However, Magistrate Jason Schubert adjourned James Michael Nugent’s disqualified driving charge and two contravene direction or requirement of police to another date.

The magistrate made the 32-year-old father of three face the music for his failure to appear charge in the Yeppoon Magistrates Court on July 1.

The court heard Nugent didn’t turn up on October 1, 2020 or March 4, 2021, with his matters outstanding for eight months.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Kevin Ongheen said Nugent had ‘numerous’ failure to appear charges on his record.

Defence lawyer Scheryn Aspinall-Clarke later told the court he committed his last offence in 2016.

The court heard his last failure to appear was 2014.

Sergeant Ongheen said police located Nugent at his house at 4.10pm on June 27.

He had an outstanding warrant at the time.

Nugent told police he didn’t go to court because he thought he was working, according to Sergeant Ongheen.

He was then taken to the watch-house and charged.

Sergeant Ongheen submitted a penalty of a recorded conviction and significant fine.

Ms Aspinall-Clarke submitted a fine to be paid within 28 days.

But the magistrate didn’t agree, saying he wouldn’t consider fines because Nugent doesn’t pay them.

The court heard Nugent’s SPER debt sits at a whopping $18,956.68.

“You’ve got one of the highest SPER debts I’ve seen,” Mr Schubert said.

Nugent made his last payment in 2019, with about $320, the court heard.

“That’s probably so he got his licence back at that time, without making any payment since,” Mr Schubert said.

Ms Aspinall-Clarke then changed her submission to a suspended prison sentence, saying it would act as a deterrence for Nugent.

When asked by the magistrate as to why he wasn’t paying his fines, Nugent said the amount SPER required was too much to afford.

“You’ve paid $2000 out of a $20,000 SPER debt,” Mr Schubert said.

“If you’d saved up money over the past six months, you’d be able to afford that amount.

“You haven’t prioritised your payment of your fines.”

Nugent pleaded guilty to the fail to appear charge.

The magistrate sentenced him to two months imprisonment suspended for 12 months and recorded the conviction.

His other matters were adjourned to July 29.