Driving home demerits points case

Many people caught driving after being suspended due to too many demerit points may soon know whether they have a defence to the charge.

A legal argument about the ‘‘giving’’ and delivery of the notice setting out the suspension has played out for about two years. Aside from one District Court judge, the decisions have found the notices were invalidly given.

Demerit points are given for a variety of driving offences. If a driver accumulates 100 or more points in two years, their licence is suspended for three months.

The Solicitor-General, Una Jagose, has taken the case to the Supreme Court. At a hearing in Wellington yesterday she said even if the final appeal was successful, it would not affect those whose convictions had been overturned.

But the case was important for many others who were caught driving while suspended and still have cases waiting to be heard.

At issue was how the New Zealand Transport Agency sent information to police once a driver accumulated 100 or more demerit points in a two-year period, and what police did when the driver was found.

Previously, courts had decided that only NZTA had the power to issue notices to drivers. But others, mostly police, were able to serve the notices on drivers. When police composed the notices, based on information from NZTA, they did not have the power to do so, it was decided.

But Jagose told the Supreme Court that what had happened was consistent with the law and even if it technically did not comply, it did not make the suspensions invalid.

The information came from NZTA, and police transcribed it on to a pre-printed form. The challenge to the suspensions was ‘‘utterly on a technicality’’.

Lawyer Andru Isac, appointed to assist the court, said passively sharing information on a database was not ‘‘giving’’ notice, a responsibility Parliament had exclusively given to the transport agency.

The Supreme Court reserved its decision.