‘Sovereign citizen’ in bizarre cop showdown
Bizarre footage shows the interaction between a driver – who calls himself a sovereign citizen – and two Queensland police officers.
A sovereign citizen has uploaded footage of a strange interaction with Queensland Police who stopped him for driving an unregistered vehicle.
The man – who states that his name is Grant Warren Hudson in the footage – tells police during the roadside stop his car is registered under “international law”, not Queensland law.
After winding down the window, he first hands one of the officers a sheet of paper and states: “You’re being served (with) a document of mine for any unlawful detainment.”
He then tells the two officers his vehicle is “privately owned” which is why it won’t come up in their registration system, also telling them his car is “in dry dock”.
“It is registered under international law,” the man tells the female officer.
“Under the international law?” she asks before saying: “You are driving around with plates that don’t belong to the vehicle.”
The man tells the officer the plates do belong to the vehicle and that his registration is “totally lawful”.
“It doesn’t make sense to you, but you need to understand that it is lawful,” he says.
“This is the third time we’ve been through this. The insurance company wouldn’t insure us if it wasn’t correct.”
Sovereign citizens are individuals who are anti-government and believe laws and regulations do not have jurisdiction over them.
The sovereign citizen movement gained a huge wave of popularity in Australia during COVID-19 restrictions.
The man in the video then tells the officers “everything has changed since 2020”.
“You know we are currently in martial law. I own every part of this vehicle. I own the plates, I own the car, and it can’t be touched or tampered with, it’s my vehicle,” he says.
He states that any “unlawful detainment, apprehension, or arrest” would incur a fee of $10,000 per hour.
At the end of the video, the male officer can be heard telling the man: “You’re right to go.”
“No probs,” the man replies.
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The footage was uploaded to the man’s TikTok, which states his name as Grant Hilton.
Police have revealed he was issued four infringement notices, with a combined fine of almost $1500: use/permit use vehicle without number plate attached as required under regulation; make, sell, or possess something that resembles a registration certificate, number plate or permit; driving an uninsured class 1, 2, 6, 8, 13, 16 or 24 motor vehicle on a road; and use/permit use of unregistered 4 cylinder or 2 rotor motor vehicle.
“Police have issued a 54-year-old Kallangur man with four traffic infringement notices totalling $1,484 in fines following a routine traffic stop conducted in Southport on June 22,” a Queensland police spokesperson said.