New legislation has been passed by State Parliament that doubles the maximum penalty for falsely nominating another person as the driver of a vehicle at the time of an offence.
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The legislation also modernises the process to allow people to submit their nomination online while removing the formal requirement for a statutory declaration.
Nominations are required to be made by the registered vehicle owners who receive a penalty notice for speed camera and other camera-detected traffic offences that incur demerit points.
The legislation amends the Fines Act 1996 and the Road Transport Act 2013 to make it easier for owners to name the driver who committed the offences but still make it an offence if they make a false nomination.
The legislation increases the maximum penalty for making a false nomination from $11,000 to $22,000 for corporations and from $5,500 to $11,000 for individuals.
The commissioner of fines administration, Stephen Brady, said the Office of State Revenue (OSR) reviews all driver nominations to confirm their accuracy.
“While the vast majority of people do the right thing, any doubtful nominations are checked against all available evidence, for example photographs taken at the time of the offence.
“OSR also checks information against RMS records for validity of licence details and immigration records to determine if the person was in Australia at the time of the offence,” Mr Brady said.
“Anyone who deliberately tries to defraud the system by falsely nominating another person risks being prosecuted and ultimately earning themselves a criminal record.”
Since 2006 OSR has issued more than 1400 fines to people for false nomination offences and has prosecuted more than 200 people relating to false nominations.
