Underbelly star Vince Colosimo too ‘mentally ill’ to pay 61k in fines
A magistrate has ruled Wog Boy star Vince Colosimo is too mentally ill to pay $58,000 in unpaid fines, with his lawyer saying the broke actor’s only possession of value was a $5000 car.
Police & Courts
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Troubled Underbelly star Vince Colosimo has had $58,000 in unpaid fines withdrawn after a magistrate deemed him too mentally unwell to cough up the cash.
The award-winning actor was beamed into the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday via video-link where his Victorian Legal Aid lawyer Julia Munster argued he had failed to pay 169 traffic infringements over a 10-year period because of his “profound mental illness”.
Ms Munster said a forensic psychologist had found the “Wog Boy” actor has been suffering from a series of significant mental health issues, including major depressive disorder, PTSD, drug dependence and ADHD.
She told the court his mental disorders, for which he has been receiving weekly counselling, and his “financial predicament” meant he was unable to pay $61,858.60 in traffic infringements between 2013 and 2022.
“He’s living a meagre lifestyle, your honour, with very limited financial capacity,” she said.
Colosimo was facing time behind bars but Magistrate Guillaume Bailin ruled that out on Thursday, instead wiping all but $3,858.60 worth of the 56-year-old’s fines, which he was ordered to pay off through 101 hours of community service over 12 months.
Mr Bailin accepted Colosimo’s “inattention” to dealing with the hefty pile of fines was due to his “mental impairment, disorder or illness” and that he did not have the financial assets to pay the infringements.
The magistrate noted that the “overwhelming majority” of the fines related to Colosimo driving an unregistered vehicle on a toll road.
“There are no criminal charges … the most serious one in the speed matter,” he said.
The court heard the original fines, which also included failing to vote and failing to stop at a traffic light, amounted to about $30,000 but when they remained unpaid they more than doubled to $61,858.60.
Ms Munster, who stressed that “these are minor offences”, argued that community service “could have a detrimental impact” on Colosimo’s rehabilitation, telling the court that he’s done “everything he can to put his life on track”.
The defence lawyer said the father of two had been volunteering every week for the past six weeks at anti-bullying charity, Bully Zero.
“There is also a risk that obligations, also community work, might impede his ability to do his other work and to then get him out of the financial predicament he’s in,” she said.
“You ought not to set up Mr Colosimo to fail.”
Ms Munster told the court Colosimo was so broke that his only valuable possession was an old car worth $5,000, adding that he had been forced to borrow $6,025 to pay another series of fines earlier this week.
Mr Bailin accepted that the entertainer’s rental and work situations remain “precarious”, noting that he had a “lack of employment prospects beyond labouring jobs”
The magistrate warned Colosimo that if he failed to complete his community service jail time could still be a real possibility.
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