Record ties up father’s car
A CORIO woman’s driving record has thwarted her father’s attempts to get his car back after it was impounded earlier this month.
The Geelong Magistrates’ Court heard Charmaine Elston has not held a licence but has been caught behind the wheel by police about 40 times.
One of her most recent offences happened on June 10, when she was driving a car belonging to her father, Joseph Jones, on Henry St, Corio.
The car was impounded for 30 days, and Mr Jones came to court to apply to have it released, claiming he needed it because of financial hardship.
But the fact he was a passenger at the time of the offence counted against him.
Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Geoff Lamb told the court it was the fourth time a car registered in Mr Jones’s name had been impounded because of Elston’s driving since 2013.
He said police pulled her over on April 20 with Mr Jones in the car and four children, including an unrestrained four-year-old.
“If the car’s released, Char- maine’s going to drive the car, isn’t she,” he asked the applicant.
Mr Jones told the court some of the cars registered to him and impounded were not his but belonged to Ms Elston because she had paid for them.
“How can it be her car, she doesn’t have a licence,” said Magistrate Frank Jones, no relation to the applicant.
The court was told Mr Jones was the licensed driver in his family, and needed the vehicle for his medical appointments, and to get his three young children to school.
His lawyer said his application should be considered on the basis of the financial hardship its impoundment was causing, but Sen-Constable Lamb argued community safety, and the chances the vehicle would be used for fur- ther offences, must be taken into account.
He said the car had been impounded for 18 days.
Magistrate Jones said Ms Elston had shown “a complete disregard for the law”, deciding the risk of releasing the car to her father ahead of time was too great.
“The likelihood of Charmaine driving this car is very high,” he said.