John Hopoate’s wife Brenda fined $500 for offence linked to distrubing toddler in car video
The wife of former NRL star John Hopoate has been fined for an offence linked to a social media video of a toddler riding in the front seat of a car without a proper restraint. Find out what she said in court.
Manly
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The wife of former NRL star John Hopoate has been fined $500 for refusing to provide the name of a driver alleged to have failed to secure a toddler who was riding in the front seat of her car “for fun”.
Rasa Brenda Hopoate, 47, was charged in August after an alarming video was posted on social media that appeared to show a toddler sitting in the luxury Lexus 4WD without a child restraint.
Mrs Hopoate, a Dee Why mother of 11 children, was not driving her car, but footage filmed from the back seat showed a young female in a hoodie behind the wheel.
Manly Local Court heard that Mrs Hopoate did not want to reveal the name of the driver to police because it would “cause issues within the family”.
Outside court, when Mrs Hopoate was asked “who are you covering up for?”, she replied: “For family.
“I just don’t want to dob anybody in”.
She also said she was embarrassed that the video was posted on social media.
No one has been charged over the failure to properly secure the child.
In August the Manly Daily broke the story about the video which was posted on Instagram.
It allegedly showed a child sitting in the front seat of the Lexus, only secured by the lap portion of a regular seatbelt as it travelled at 50km/h along Fisher Rd at Dee Why.
A child under four years is not permitted to travel in the front seat of a vehicle and those aged from six months, but under four years, must be secured in an approved child restraint with an in-built harness.
The video was brought to the attention of officers attached to Strike Force Puma, a special squad that targets high risk drivers.
It was posted by Maile Hopoate — one of the couple’s adult daughters.
Mrs Hopoate, who did not have a solicitor but was supported in court by her husband, pleaded guilty in court today to one count of responsible person not disclose driver’s details.
In a police facts sheet tendered to court, police said Mrs Hopoate originally told them that she did not know who the driver was. Then she told police the driver was an overseas relative, who had returned to their home country.
After being given two days to provide the name and address of the overseas’ relative, Mrs Hopoate admitted the driver was not from overseas.
She then told police that she knew who the driver was “but did not want to cause issues within the family by providing police with their name”.
The facts sheet said police reminded her she could be charged if she did not hand over the name of the driver, but she said “she had made up her mind”.
“The accused did show concern regarding the posting of the video to social media with the knowledge it was done so ‘for fun’,” the facts sheet said.
Before fining Mrs Hopoate $500, Magistrate Michelle Goodwin asked her if she had anything to say.
Mrs Hopoate replied: “I’m sorry”.