Licence woe for dazed Demon
AFL star Clayton Oliver has been spared conviction for driving while suspended after claiming he had not opened a letter notifying him he could not get behind the wheel.
The Melbourne Demons player, 26, instead copped a $600 fine after admitting driving while his licence was suspended on medical grounds when he was pulled over in Camberwell on November 16.
Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday heard the midfielder’s licence had been suspended six days earlier after being hospitalised for a seizure the previous month.
“I wasn’t aware that I was suspended; I was aware I wasn’t insured and if I crashed I would be liable for everything,” Oliver told police when he was pulled over. “I didn’t think having one seizure from having a head knock accounted for having my licence suspended.”
Oliver did not appear in court on Tuesday due to a medical appointment, and was instead represented by lawyer Sally Vardy, who said the football club’s doctors had advised Oliver he should not drive but he did not think that constituted a formal ban.
“He accepts he misunderstood the medical advice,” she said, adding that Oliver had not driven since the incident, instead relying on ride share apps, carpooling and friends and family.
She said he was waiting for a medical assessment to clear him to resume driving.
The court heard Oliver had one other driving matter from 2016 but this was his first court proceeding.
Magistrate Barry Johnstone fined him $600 without conviction.
“He’s in charge of a lethal weapon when he drives a car, and when a medical practitioner says to him you shouldn’t be driving there is a reason behind that,” he said.
“People of otherwise good character do stupid things in cars and this was a stupid thing.”