The Australian Border Force has been brought in to work with authorities in the country’s most populous state to target motorists evading demerit points by falsely nominating other drivers. Officials say that incredibly, thousands of these nominees include drivers who have never even set foot in the country.
Road authorities in NSW have announced they are yet again cracking down on the dodgy practice, which drivers use to save their licence from disqualification. This issue, they say, is particularly prevalent among foreign nationals, with the French consulate this week agreeing to help stop its residents from using fake papers to get a local licence.
Road authorities crackdown on demerit traders nominating people overseas
The Australian Border Force will now be checking records when an international licence holder is nominated as being responsible for an offence. It comes after the authority found that tens of thousands of people nominated to take a traffic penalty over the past two years hadn’t ever been to Australia.
TfNSW confirmed to Yahoo News Australia on Friday that between May 2022 and January this year, some 125,000 penalties carrying 256,000 demerit points were handed down to motorists identified by Revenue NSW as international drivers. Of those, 40,000 had never set foot in the country and police believe some of their details were likely found on the dark web.
Offences were also nominated to people who hold international licences but were at the same time Australian citizens or permanent residents – some of whom hold a separate Australian licence unaffected by taking points on their foreign licence.
If a nominated driver is discovered to have been outside Australia at the time of the offence, TfNSW will be able to more swiftly reassign the penalty to the individual who attempted to transfer the fine and demerit points.
The problem in the state is one that been ongoing for years, with governments trying out a number of different methods in the last two years to stamp out the practice. Source: Getty
Earlier this year, it was revealed that an incredible 2,102 demerit points had been accumulated by 30 licence holders — all listed as living in a single property.
Online, French nationals have boasted on social media about the dodgy trade, sharing tips on how to get away with breaking road rules and avoid punishment. “I’ve already been to court in Queensland, I got busted again in NSW but I’m already on my way to South Australia,” one post, when translated, reportedly said.
Evidence of abuses of the demerit point system by mainly French nationals, who have racked up 1000-plus demerit points in some extreme cases, led to the establishment of the Demerit Point Taskforce, which was made up of officials from TfNSW, NSW Police and Revenue NSW and led to the suspension of more than 50 repeat offenders.
Drivers racking up demerit points ‘like confetti’
The Taskforce identified widespread nominations of other drivers on international licences as a weakness in the system that must be tightened, the NSW government said Friday.
“There are more than six million law-abiding licence holders in NSW and on their behalf, we are showing zero tolerance for this tiny minority who have sought to exploit the system that allows the honest nomination of another driver,” NSW Minister for Roads John Graham said this morning.
“Above all else it is a threat to road safety to allow people to remain on the road who are notching up demerit points like confetti, avoiding paying fines, and in many cases leaving the country just as the system begins to catch up with them.
“I thank Australian Border Force and the French Consulate for their assistance in tightening the net around this small clique of dedicated lawbreakers.”
Authorities have been working to put an end to dodgy demerit point trade on Facebook Marketplace, where foreign nationals take on Aussie drivers’ points for a fee. Source: Facebook
Last year, Yahoo News contacted a seller who told us how he got away with the scheme. Source: Supplied
New driver’s licence changes aim to stop dodgy practice
The problem in the state is one that been ongoing for some time, with governments trying out a number of different methods in the last two years to stamp out the practice.
In March, it was announced motorists driving on foreign licences will have just months to convert to an Australian one in an effort to prevent people from exploiting a legal “loophole”, which had for years allowed overseas-licensed drivers to accrue dozens of demerit points but remain on the road.
“Overseas licence holders, who reside in NSW for longer than a short visit, are required to convert to a NSW driver licence,” a Transport for NSW (TfNSW) spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia. “Temporary visa holders must convert to a NSW licence if they have resided continuously in NSW for six months or more and wish to continue driving.”
The rule changes in March were intended to also crack down the selling of demerit points on social media, most commonly on Facebook Marketplace, where foreign drivers would cop Australian drivers’ points for a fee, as they did not face a limit on how many they could accrue without being banned from the road, or potentially take the money and use fake personal information.
It’s just the tip of the iceberg with an entire black market operating online in the exchange of demerit points for cash. On Marketplace, there are dozens of posts in Sydney alone where cash is offered to take on demerit points.
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