More unpaid fines could be withdrawn after second court ruling throws out charge

Thousands of speeding fines may be withdrawn following a court ruling that testing problems affecting dedicated speed camera vans may be more extensive than thought.

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THOUSANDS more speeding fines may be withdrawn following a court ruling that testing problems affecting dedicated speed camera vans may be more extensive than first thought.

NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker told parliament last week more than 8000 unpaid fines would be withdrawn after a judge found the evidence from the cameras was inadmissable.

A spokesman later confirmed the withdrawn fines only included those doled out by “mobile speed detection vans” and units in police vehicles were believed to be unaffected.

But that changed on the day after Mr Chalker’s comments in estimates when Darwin Local Court judge Stephen Geary threw out another fine, this time issued by a general duties officer.

The court heard the driver was clocked doing 75km/h in a 60km/h zone on Gilruth Ave in September after the officers noticed her apparently speeding and tried to pull her over.

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In the earlier ruling, judge Tanya Fong Lim found the units in the speed detection vans were not tested in accordance with the manufacturer’s user manual.

But in last week’s hearing, prosecutors said they were unable to even produce a copy of the manual for the court due to the manufacturer’s concerns over copyright, a situation Mr Geary described as “a real issue that needs to be addressed”.

“I have no reason at all to think both police officers are not highly competent and honest in their evidence but the prosecution must disclose all relevant evidence to the accused and that was not done in this case,” he said.

“It is the view of this court that to rely on the manual but not provide a copy to the defendant, particularly, has deprived her of a potentially crucial cross examination of the police officers and the possibility of calling, for example, expert evidence."

In response, acting Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst said police were now seeking further advice from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

“Northern Territory Police are aware of the decision of the court and are awaiting further advice from (the) DPP to assist with making an informed assessment of this matter,” he said.

Despite the ruling, Mr Geary declined to award the woman costs, saying “I don’t think you drove very well on that day”.

“The charge of speeding hasn’t been proven but certainly it appears, at least in the body-worn footage, that they had to pursue you for two or three hundred metres in the police vehicle, sirens flashing,” he said.

Mr Wurst did not respond to a question about how many more fines might be affected by the latest ruling.

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