Mum with terrible driving history drove while banned because her daughter was scared of the dark
She knew she wasn’t allowed to drive but her maternal instincts took over and she went to collect her scared daughter from a dark park. The decision could have cost her her freedom.
Inner South
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A tearful mum who drove while disqualified to pick up her daughter because the teenager was scared of the dark has narrowly avoided jail.
Victoria Vaysman got behind the wheel to collect her 13-year-old from a local park because her offspring feared the night drawing in.
But the single mother’s licence had been disqualified, and her car was also out of rego at the time.
Vaysman has a “startling” rap sheet, including seven previous driving while banned offences and a series of speeding violations.
Yesterday the Bentleigh East 48-year-old cried as she again lost her licence, lost her car for a second time, and nearly lost her liberty as well.
Vaysman pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified in an unregistered car at Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court.
The court heard on the evening of June 15 this year her car was seen by police on North Rd, Ormond.
They pulled her over and officers asked her why she was driving without a valid licence in a car that had run out of rego three days before.
Vaysman said her daughter had called her to pick her up because it was getting dark.
She said she didn’t want to drive, but felt obligated to go and fetch her, even though the daughter knew her mother was banned.
Her car was then impounded for 30 days.
In court her lawyer said the McKinnon Secondary College student and her friend had gone to the park for a walk around 5.30pm but soon rang her mum because she was getting more and more scared as it became darker.
It was then an “emotionally distressed” Vaysman jumped in her car and collected her child.
The lawyer agreed her history was “terrible”, most of it which had occurred through a series of low-level speeding offences that accrued demerit points which ended up as suspensions, which were then violated.
She said a remorseful and sorry Vaysman, who runs a short stay business in the CBD, was not on drugs or alcohol and not a violent offender, and needed to stay out of jail as she was the sole breadwinner for her family and carer for her elderly parents.
Magistrate Anne Goldsbrough said Vaysman’s “rather startling history” was indicative of her being a very bad driver, and while it may have been a mistake to let her daughter go out when it was getting dark, this court case was not about her parenting skills.
“Your regular disregard for the road rules and poor driving is what has put you in this situation,” Ms Goldsbrough said.
“You were given opportunities not to reoffend, buy you’ve disobeyed them.”
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Ms Goldsbrough said Vaysman’s personal circumstances and obvious remorse were factors that kept her out of jail this time, but that won’t be the case if she appears in court again.
Vaysman was placed on a 12-month community corrections order, must do 100 hours of unpaid work and undertake a road trauma awareness seminar.
She was also convicted and fined $500, had her licence suspended for another two months and had her car, an Audi A3, impounded for a further 60 days.