Company owners and executives in Victoria can use a loophole to avoid losing their licences when the car is registered to a corporation – but now the State Government is calling for that to change.
A loophole used by speeding drivers to avoid losing their licence could be about to close.
In the latest annual report from the Victorian Road Safety Camera Commissioner (RSCC), the commissioner highlighted situations where organisations choose to pay a $3000 fine, rather than nominating dangerous drivers who would normally have lost their licence from excessive speeding.
When a speeding vehicle registered to a corporation is caught on camera, the onus is on the organisation to nominate a driver. In many cases, the company will opt to pay a large fine instead of allowing its employee to lose their licence.
“In some cases, this allowed corporate executives, with full private use of a company vehicle, to personally avoid fines and demerit points,” the commissioner wrote in the annual report.
“Some of the excessive speeding offending detected would have resulted in the immediate loss of licence if the individual drivers had been nominated. This is concerning as these drivers have not faced the consequences for their dangerous driving behaviour and have been allowed to continue to place themselves and other road users at risk.”
The loophole was the focus of a 2019 report from the RCSS, with a number of recommendations presented in an effort to stop individuals from side-stepping traffic laws.
“I will be seeking updates from the relevant road safety partners on these recommendations and will report further in the next annual report,” the commissioner wrote.
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The recommendations include strengthening current laws, adding additional penalties for corporations in cases where a driver would have lost their licence – including suspending the car’s registration and blocking it from registering another vehicle – as well as having the Department of Justice investigate the worst repeat offenders.
The recommendations would bring Victoria into line with New South Wales, which requires corporations to nominate a driver by law.
Organisations that fail to comply face fines five times higher than those applied to a driver, along with an additional fine. Repeat offenders can be fined up to $22,000, along with having the vehicle registration suspended.
The annual report was one of more than 240 published by the Victorian Government in a single day.
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