Test drive up the street puts driver off the road for two years

The car had no number plates attached, was unregistered and uninsured and the driver was disqualified by the court.

He told police he had only driven the car up the street for a test drive.

TAKING a car for a short test run after “significant” repairs has put a Toowoomba man off the roads for the next two years.

Police responding to calls of hooning on Pascoe Lane, Harlaxton, about 10pm, Saturday, November 7, had arrived to find tyre marks on the street and driveway of Jeffrey Allan Claxton’s home.

Told by police they had received reports of someone doing burnouts in the street, the 32-year-old said he had just taken his car for a test drive up the street after doing “significant” repairs to it, Toowoomba Magistrates Court heard.

Claxton told police he had only driven to the end of the cul-de-sac.

Police prosecutor Rohan Brewster-Webb told the court the car had no number plates attached, the registration had been cancelled in June last year and so it was also uninsured and police checks found Claxton had been disqualified from driving for four months by the court on July 17, last year.

Claxton pleaded guilty to disqualified driving and driving an unregistered and uninsured car.

Duty solicitor Amber Acreman, of David Burns Lawyers, told the court her client had co-operated with police and had made admissions.

Her client was in a de facto relationship and was on Newstart she said.

Mr Brewster-Webb told the court the tickets for driving an unregistered and uninsured car were $533 and $420 respectively.

However, Acting Magistrate Lisa O’Neill said she would lessen the fines because the defendant was already under financial stress on social security.

Noting he was just nine days shy of being able to get his licence back, Ms O’Neill fined Claxton a total $1200 and disqualified him from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for the mandatory minimum period of two years.