Sunshine Coast man Ronald Green fails in court appeal bid

A Sunshine Coast man, who attempted to tell an “elaborate story” to dodge charges over an unregistered car, has suffered a blow in court.

Maroochydore Court House. Picture: Patrick Woods.

A Sunshine Coast man who attempted to tell an “elaborate story” to dodge charges over an unregistered car, has been hit with a substantial fine.

Conondale man, Ronald Green, filed an appeal application against the Department of Transport and Main Roads with the District Court, after a magistrate convicted him of driving an uninsured and unregistered vehicle.

Green did not dispute the car was uninsured and unregistered, but argued he was not driving it and he was trying to organise a lift at the time.

According to the court documents, Senior Constable Ross Hamilton said he saw Green switch places in the car with his passenger as they approached the car to conduct a random breath test.

However, in the appeal documents, Green claimed Senior Constable Hamilton would have had trouble seeing past Sergeant Nicholas Patterson.

“The appellant submits that Senior Constable Hamilton, driving the police car, had to look across Sergeant Patterson’s large body to see into Appaloosa Drive,” the court documents stated.

The court documents stated Green also argued the pair were not going to drive the car, but instead had got inside to shelter from rain as they organised a lift.

The magistrate described the story told by Green and his passenger as “nonsense”, according to the court documents.

The magistrate decided Green had been driving the car before making up an “elaborate story”, but he failed to explain why the headlights were on if the car was not being driven.

“The learned Magistrate accepted the evidence of Senior Constable Hamilton and Sergeant Patterson, who each saw the appellant exit the driver’s seat and move into the front passenger seat,” the court documents stated.

District Court judge Vicki Loury dismissed Green’s claims the magistrate who found him to be guilty was biased.

“Whilst the learned Magistrate did use, from time to time, injudicious phrases such as “who cares”, “that’s a silly question” and “I’ve had enough of this”, those interruptions were made during the course of the appellant’s questioning about matters irrelevant to the issues to be decided,” the court documents stated.

Ms Loury dismissed the application and ordered Green pay the $800 legal fee.