Jai Perkins: Wallamore truckie drove illegal hours to pay for IVF
The son of an Australian trucking legend has been given a dressing down in court for driving illegally long hours delivering sheep between NSW and WA to help pay for his partner’s IVF treatment.
Central Sydney
Don't miss out on the headlines from Central Sydney. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- “I wasn’t drink driving … I crashed and then got drunk”
- Latest in the $100 million Sydney pub empire family feud
A young truckie desperate to start a family faced fines of more than $200,000 for driving illegally long hours carting sheep from NSW to Western Australia during the drought to fund his partner’s IVF treatment.
Jai Alexander Perkins, 26, of Wallamore near Tamworth appeared in Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney on Tuesday.
His father is National Road Transport Hall of Famer Warren “Porky” Perkins – a legendary owner/driver and general manager of StockTrans.
Perkins was supported in the public gallery by his tearful, heavily pregnant partner who is expecting their first child in coming months following an arduous $53,000 IVF journey.
He pleaded guilty to 29 charges of not recording the required information after starting work and three charges of a solo driver working more than the maximum time which were considered to be of critical, substantial and minor risk respectively.
Perkins also pleaded guilty to a further four charges relating to not keeping an accurate diary, ignoring a warning given to him by Roads and Maritime Safety officers in November last year and failing to produce the records.
Magistrate Kate Thompson heard Perkins first caught the attention of RMS in November when he was pulled over for a compliance check.
Reading aloud from the police fact sheet, Magistrate Thompson noted Perkins admitted to the officers he was “lazy” and said “usually I just fill it out when I hear you guys are around”.
Despite being charged with a staggering 28 breaches at that time, he continued to drive B Doubles contrary to the law and was found to have breached the legislation again in March and April.
Perkins’ solicitor told the court his employer Thompson’s Transport were well aware of the breaches.
“You could imagine how big the bill was to send sheep from NSW to WA,” Mr Clark told the court.
Magistrate Thompson was unimpressed, and reminded Mr Clark the company was not before the court.
“It doesn’t assist the court, your client shifting the blame to the employer,” she said.
Perkins contract has since been terminated by the company as a result of the charges and works for a new trucking business which provided a glowing reference.
Mr Clark entreated Magistrate Thompson not to impose the fines to their full extent which would have added up to a hefty $217,000.
“I ask he doesn’t walk out of this court with such a level of debt he either declares bankruptcy or is absolutely mired in debt,” Mr Clark said.
“He wants to make things comfortable for his family. That was perhaps the misguided reason he did this.”
In handing down her sentence, Magistrate Thompson said while she had sympathy for the couple’s fertility struggles on a “personal level” it was no excuse for engaging in such dangerous behaviour.
“It would have been cold comfort to anyone he was to crash into that he had been driving tired to pay for IVF,” Magistrate Thompson said.
Perkins was convicted and fined a total of $8500.
When interviewed by The Daily Examiner in December 2018, Perkins told the newspaper there was one thing he didn’t like about his job.
“The biggest thing for us young drivers is all the rules,” he said.
“I’m not saying we need to run amok but they can be a deterrent for some, especially the fatigue laws that force you to stop when you’re nearly home.”