That’s not a phone! The outrageous reason driver was fined $387
A lawyer who was fined $387 and 10 penalty points for ‘using a phone’ while driving after claiming she was actually holding a piece of banana bread.
Merridy Gordon was driving from Canberra to Sydney on the M5 on New Year’s Day when mobile detection cameras took a photo of the inside of her vehicle and detected what was believed to be her phone.
Because the fine was issued on a national holiday, double penalty points were also awarded.
But when it happened a few weeks later, Mrs. Gordon knew she had to fight it.
She went to the Transport for NSW (TfNSW) website to see what the cameras had picked up and after enlarging the photos she recognized what it was.
Mrs. Gordon said Yahoo News that her phone had been under the side of her seat and that what was found was a piece of banana bread she had bought in Canberra for the three-hour drive to Sydney.
The lawyer wrote to TfNSW and told them they had made a mistake.
“They said something like ‘Too bad, so sad, I don’t care’ and that I should take the matter to court,” Gordon said.
What Transport for NSW said was that a phone found in lawyer Merridy Gordon’s car on a journey back to Sydney from Canberra was in fact a piece of banana bread (pictured)
The case was heard in Campbelltown, 57 kilometres south-west of Sydney’s CBD, because it was the closest court to where the mobile detection camera took the photo.
Ms Gordon said that when shown the photo, a magistrate noted that most mobile phones are rectangular and the so-called phone in the photo was not.
The magistrate also said they could see the phone on the side of her chair.
A TfNSW representative said it looked a bit thin for banana bread, “which is just a stupid comment,” Ms Gordon noted.
The magistrate told the lawyer that TfNSW had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that she was on the phone and that he had “significant” doubts.
Because the fine (in the photo) was collected on a national holiday, double demerit points were also added. When the fine was collected a few weeks later, Ms Gordon knew she had to fight it.
Ms Gordon said the “angry” magistrate told TfNSW it “has a responsibility to look at these photos properly”.
“It is clear from the photographs that there is serious doubt as to whether she was holding a phone,” the magistrate said.
Ms Gordon added: ‘The magistrate told TfNSW: “Ms Gordon clearly wrote you a sensible letter and you simply ignored it,” she recalled.
TfNSW was ordered to pay her legal costs of $4,000, the fine was quashed and the penalty points reinstated.
A TfNSW spokeswoman declined to comment on Ms Gordon’s individual case but said “it is rare for misidentification to occur”.