U-turn in driver licence battle
A legal battle sparked by a driver who successfully challenged a conviction for driving while suspended has been thrown out by judges of New Zealand’s highest court.
The landmark case, which was finally settled in a judgment released yesterday by the Supreme Court, came after a routine police stop.
A police officer stopped a driver after the police automatic number plate recognition system advised that he was driving while his licence was suspended.
When drivers accumulate 100 or more demerit points, the New Zealand Transport Agency is obliged under section 90 of the Land Transport Act 1998 to “give notice in writing” that their licence has been suspended for three months, or, if unlicensed, that they have been disqualified from holding a driver licence for three months.
Notice may be “served” by the NZTA, a person approved by the agency, or by an enforcement officer, including a police officer.
The police officer in this case completed a form using information from the NZTA’s database and served it on the driver, who was then charged with driving while suspended.
But the driver defended the charge, claiming the section 90 notice was invalid because it was the police, not the NZTA, who had “give[n] notice in writing”. The defence was rejected by a District Court judge and the driver was convicted.
He then appealed to the High Court at Christchurch where a judge ruled that the NZTA had not fulfilled its obligation to give notice to the driver in writing of his suspension, and that the conviction should be quashed.
The quashing prompted the Solicitor-General to seek leave to refer to the Court of Appeal which backed the High Court, and so the Solicitor-General took it to the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court judges unanimously concluded that the NZTA had fulfilled its duty to give notice by causing police to serve the required information on drivers liable to receive such notices.
The decision does not affect the quashing of the driver’s conviction.