Farzad Goli, 19, pleads not guilty to driving without a licence

A teen car enthusiast was banned from driving for years after he was caught out by a witness to his crime.

Farzad Goli, 19, pleaded not guilty to driving while disqualified under court order in an alleged case of mistaken identity. Picture: Chronicle

A Toowoomba teen has told a court he was unfairly charged with a serious driving offence in a case of mistaken identity.

Farzad Goli, 19, pleaded not guilty in Toowoomba Magistrates Court to driving without a licence while disqualified by court order after an eye witness placed him in the driver’s seat.

Mr Goli chose to self-represent in the trial.

The court heard Mr Goli was in the front passenger seat of a red Mercedes sports car when it was pulled over by police outside the Spotted Cow on Campbell Street in February this year.

“He wasn’t the driver at that time, someone else was driving,” Police prosecutor Nicholas Pratt said.

“That driver was then administered a drug test, he returned a positive reading, he was then taken away.”

An eyewitness testified he then saw Mr Goli get in the driver’s seat and drive away once police had left the scene.

“I would’ve been about 20 metres away,” the witness said.

“There was a child, he was in the back seat … he was a fair amount shorter than the person who sat in the front passenger seat,” he said, referring to Mr Goli’s friend.

“(The driver was) the taller gentleman, the one that would’ve been in the front passenger seat.”

A police witness told the court another eyewitness was originally scheduled to attend but Mr Pratt advised she was ultimately deemed unreliable.

While on the stand, Mr Goli agreed there was a significant height and weight difference between him and his friend.

Despite this, he argued the eyewitness was mistaken and it was his 18-year-old friend who drove, not him.

“I called (my friend) in front of the officer … he confirmed he was the one driving, I told the officer and he still charged me,” Mr Goli said.

Mr Goli’s friend also testified he was driving that day and denied covering for Mr Goli.

Mr Pratt questioned Mr Goli on his desire to be back on the road.

“I think maybe you do miss driving,” Mr Pratt said.

“And it would have been very tempting to have driven that Mercedes that day.”

Mr Goli denied this was the case and claimed, while he enjoyed the look of luxury vehicles, he wasn’t missing driving.

Magistrate Mark Howden ultimately accepted the evidence of the eye witness and found Mr Goli guilty of the charge.

“I’m conscious that this is an identification case and conscious of the seductive effect of identification evidence,” he said.

“(The witness’s) evidence is quite clear … he saw the person who was in the front passenger side of the vehicle, a taller person, a thinner person, once police are gone, get into the driver side of the vehicle and drive away.

Mr Goli was further disqualified from holding or obtaining a licence for two years.