A Sydney mother is furious her perfect driving record could be ruined by a fine for using her mobile phone while driving despite her claiming she was scratching her face.
Steff Doney, 37, spoke to A Current Affair about the matter.
“I’ve been on the road for 20 years and I’ve never lost a point and now it’s going to take me 10 years to get that clean record back so I’m pretty disappointed,” Ms Doney told A Current Affair.
She was photographed driving with one hand in Sydney’s north last year and was fined $349 as well as losing five demerit points.
“My phone’s large so if I actually had it on my ear you can see that the phone would be coming way past my hand,” Ms Doney said.
She fought the penalty notice and gave authorities a photo comparison as well as a call log, but Revenue NSW has said that the image has been reviewed.
Revenue New South Wales responded saying, “the images have been reviewed and clearly show the driver holding a mobile phone to their right ear”.
This mother says her perfect driving record could be ruined by a mobile phone fine based on a photograph she claims shows nothing. #9ACA https://t.co/nxXVtK90sW
— A Current Affair (@ACurrentAffair9) March 30, 2021
“Leniency is not appropriate for this offence as it is considered serious … hence we are unable to consider your overall driving history when reviewing this type of offence.”Barrister Sean Hardy was interviewed by A Current Affair and he said he was “astonished” that they fined Doney.
“I’m astonished they would say she’s clearly holding a phone, because I can’t see a phone in that photo,” he said.
“There’s a little bit of a black void which could be mistaken for a black phone but that’s not good enough, you can’t just make the mistake and assume guilt,” he continued.
“I imagine the magistrate’s going to find reasonable doubt … but we’ll wait and see.
“It’s David vs Goliath and I think the government really needs to take a step back and give people a break if they’re not sure, absolutely sure.”