Christopher Saravinovski convicted for failing to reverse safely in a McDonald’s car park
The son of a former Sydney mayor who is likely to be confirmed as a councillor has been convicted of a driving offence weeks after he successfully appealed a licence suspension.
Police & Courts
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The son of a former mayor who is likely to be confirmed as a councillor has been convicted of a driving offence weeks after he successfully appealed a licence suspension.
Christopher Saravinovski, 21, was a no-show at Sutherland Local Court on Thursday where he was due to face a charge of failing to reverse safely.
It comes less than a fortnight after Saravinovski took the lead in the Bayside Council election for the Labor Party, with his position as councillor all but confirmed as the top pick for Ward 3. The result will be declared next week.
He follows in the footsteps of his father Bill Saravinovski, who served as the mayor of Bayside Council three times since 2017 before retiring last month.
In court on Thursday, Saravinovski’s name was called out three times during the course of the day before Magistrate Holly Kemp convicted Saravinovski in his absence.
Ms Kemp read out documents tendered to court about the offence which revealed Saravinovski reversed and collided into another car at the McDonald’s car park in Taren Point about 6pm on August 11, 2023.
The court heard Saravinovski previously submitted he was not to blame for the offence.
According to his submissions, Saravinovski claimed the other driver did not wait for him to reverse and “swung wide to go around him,” causing the collision.
Ms Kemp noted the offence was below the mid-range but acknowledged Saravinovski had a “relatively poor (traffic) record” for someone who had “only held a licence since 2019”.
It comes a month after Saravinovski successfully appealed a licence suspension for travelling more than 20km/h over the limit, disobeying road markings and reversing into another vehicle from the same incident at the McDonald’s car park.
On that occasion Saravinovski presented a letter from Transport NSW indicating the fine had been withdrawn for the reversing matter.
The Transport NSW prosecutor noted the offence had been lifted from his traffic record and there were “not enough demerit points lost to warrant a suspension”.
Magistrate Philip Stewart told Saravinovski the withdrawal meant he had lost six demerit points as opposed to eight, meaning he had avoided crossing the seven-demerit suspension threshold.
Despite walking away with his licence successfully appealed at the time, Saravinovski was convicted and fined $201 for the reversing charge on Thursday.
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