Branka Katrina Ivanov takes the fall for a borrowed car with an illegal radar detector inside

A Sunshine Coast woman found herself answering a criminal charge in a Central Queensland court under unusual circumstances.

A police officer uses a laser speed detector.

A woman who borrowed a car, not knowing it had an illegal radar detector in it, has faced court on a criminal charge.

Branka Katrina Ivanov, 65, pleaded guilty in Biloela Magistrates Court on November 24 to having a radar detector in a vehicle she was driving.

The court heard that Ivanov came to the attention of police on the Burnett Highway at Thangool on September 7.

She was driving a Mazda dual cab ute and a police officer conducting patrols suspected there was a radar detector in the vehicle.

After the officer asked Ivanov to produce the radar detector, she was not able to, and she said the vehicle belonged to someone else and she would call them.

After that conversation, Ivanov still could not produce the radar detector so the police officer searched the vehicle and found it, with a power cord between the front passenger seat and the centre console.

The radar detector was seized and Ivanov was charged.

The court heard that Ivanov had a traffic history but it was “quite dated”.

Ivanov, who resides at the Sunshine Coast, represented herself in court via a phone link.

“I was borrowing a car from a friend,” she told Magistrate Philippa Beckinsale.

Ivanov added that she had “no idea” the radar detector was in the vehicle and when she had called the owner after being pulled over by police, the owner would not give her any information.

“When I asked (the owner), he went quiet,” Ivanov explained to Ms Beckinsale.

“And I said ‘you need to tell me something because I’ve been pulled over for this reason. Is there, or do you have?’ - And he goes - he didn’t give me an answer at all actually.

“And so, the police officer is standing right next to me at the window.”

Ms Beckinsale said Ivanov’s offending appeared to be of “low criminality”.

She fined Ivanov $200, ordered forfeiture of the radar detector, and did not record a conviction.

Originally published as Branka Katrina Ivanov takes the fall for a borrowed car with an illegal radar detector inside