speeding fine

forbz86

Hey folks

During the summer I travelled to Oz on holidays, did the usual and rented a car to drive up the east coast..

I'm home in Ireland again now and I've received a letter from the NSW office of state revenue telling me I was caught speeding. Had the cruise control on and entered a school zone, was caught by the camera before I realised I was speeding...

Anyway, my question is what would be the consequences of just ignoring this letter and the $313 fine that comes with it!? I know I should pay it, but its a lot of money and at the moment I don't have any plans to return to Australia, but that could always change and I may go over for work or maybe just a holiday.
I'd rather not get there and discover I'm liable to pay the fine and a huge level of interest too!!

Thanks in advance

Batgurl

Pay the fine. You can't claim ignorance as you gave them your Irish address.

Fines go up steeply here if you don't pay and I imagine you won't be allowed to enter the country if it's marked against your passport. (assume you had to show that to get the rental?)

forbz86

That's the reply I was expecting to be honest!

Yeah they had my address and Irish license number from the rental company, can't remember if they needed my passport...

Its a fair chunk of money though, crazy amount for a one off speeding fine!

Sundy

I know they are a bit over strict on speeding here but $313 is a good deterrent not to speed in school zones.

sponge_bob

If you used a credit card to get the rental, which you would allmost certainly have had too, then the next step the police take here is go to the rental company, the rental company pays the fine and then takes it from your credit card without notice.
so probably easier to pay it now as to go through all that hassle, its a crazy speeding fine when you compare it to wages in ireland as it allmost represents a standard wage. But because of higher living costs and higher wages out here it only represents about 30% of a standard wage.
Some Crazy fines out here :eek:

forbz86

Thanks for the replies.. I never thought of the rental company being charged and then just taking it from my credit card!

Luckily for NSW I had a little bit of a disposable cash just before this months payday, so I paid the fine!

sponge_bob

forbz86 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.. I never thought of the rental company being charged and then just taking it from my credit card!

Luckily for NSW I had a little bit of a disposable cash just before this months payday, so I paid the fine!

Not sure if they charge the rental company or not, but they will go to the rental company and they just normally pay out from your credit card.

lg123

sponge_bob wrote: »

If you used a credit card to get the rental, which you would allmost certainly have had too, then the next step the police take here is go to the rental company, the rental company pays the fine and then takes it from your credit card without notice.

i'm pretty sure this wont happen unless they have changed the laws recently. paying the fine means you pleading guilty to the offence and i dont think the rental company has the right to do this on your behalf.

similar thing happened to a friend, Vic police sent a few reminder letters increasing the fine each time, then a letter saying if it wasnt paid within a specified date they would issue a warrant for his arrest. dont think its been paid yet and its been a few years now. wouldnt like to be him coming through aus immigration again though.

probably done the best thing paying it, you never know when you might want/need to come back.

Zambia

The rental company simply nominates you as the driver and they never have to worry about it. They wont pay it as they don't have to.

The only way they would pay it (an the fine is hefty if you cannot provide the driver detials) is if they lost all details of who had the car at the time.

forbz86

lg123 wrote: »

i'm pretty sure this wont happen unless they have changed the laws recently. paying the fine means you pleading guilty to the offence and i dont think the rental company has the right to do this on your behalf.

similar thing happened to a friend, Vic police sent a few reminder letters increasing the fine each time, then a letter saying if it wasnt paid within a specified date they would issue a warrant for his arrest. dont think its been paid yet and its been a few years now. wouldnt like to be him coming through aus immigration again though.

probably done the best thing paying it, you never know when you might want/need to come back.

That's what I was thinking would happen..

Ah well it's paid now. Sure it's only money!!