‘This is the fifth time; today you go to jail’ magistrate tells stunned repeat suspended driver
A driver with a terrible traffic history has been sent to jail for two months after he was convicted of driving while suspended for the fifth time.
South East
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A carefree chef with a terrible traffic history has been jailed for driving while suspended for the fifth time.
The Frankston man, who represented himself in court, looked shocked and surprised when told he would be spending the next two months behind bars.
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Zhi Liu pleaded guilty to a suspended driving charge at Frankston Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
The court heard the 45-year-old was pulled over in his Volvo sedan on Lyrebird Drive, Carrum Downs at 4.30pm on April 2.
When officers checked the validity of his licence, they found it had been suspended on November 11 for six months for accruing too many demerit points.
He had been banned from the road until May 10, and admitted he had received mail from VicRoads telling him the dates of his suspension.
He told officers he usually rode his bike, but had driven his car that day because he had “hurt his knee” a few weeks earlier.
In court Liu accepted he shouldn’t have been driving, and “had no real excuse” for being behind the wheel.
He said he had normally been catching trains for work in Carrum Downs and Frankston South but had driven his car that day.
Liu said he knew he had a “chequered” traffic history, admitting he had been caught driving suspended or unlicensed in 2012, twice in 2013 and again in February this year.
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Magistrate John Doherty said there used to be mandatory sentencing laws involving jail time for offenders caught driving while suspended for a second time, but that practice had now ended.
He said it was obvious the message wasn’t getting through to Liu.
“Why do you continue to drive while you are not supposed to?” he asked him.
“You are having trouble learning your lesson.
“This is the fifth time; today you go to jail.”
Liu was jailed for two months and disqualified from driving for 12 months.
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