A PENSIONER was fined for using a mobile phone while driving despite claiming to have never owned one – and called it “a load of s**t”.
Frank Singh, 77, from Australia was left utterly bewildered when a letter from Revenue New South Wales came through the post demanding he paid $362 (£187) for the driving offence.
NineFrank Singh, 77, was fined for using a mobile phone while driving despite never owning one[/caption]
NineThe Aussie pensioner was caught on camera holding something his his left hand[/caption]
NineHe insists it wasn’t a mobile phone and was instead his wallet[/caption]
Images taken by a mobile phone detection camera on the Pacific Motorway in NSW’s Northern Rivers region clearly show Frank holding and looking down at something in his left hand.
He believed it to be his wallet, even though he can’t specifically remember holding it at the time, and claims he may have put it on the passenger seat after filling up with fuel.
But despite the unconvincing images, Frank’s adamant he’s never owned a mobile phone.
“It looks like I’m guilty on it, but I’m not. I don’t own one. I don’t use one,” he told A Current Affair.
“I thought, what the bloody hell is this all about, I don’t own a mobile phone. I’ve never used a mobile phone. What a load of s**t.”
At 77, Frank prefers face-to-face conversations and reading hard copy newspapers over texting and surfing the internet.
That’s proven further by the fact he doesn’t even have a computer or an email address.
But after becoming so distressed by the situation, Frank’s friend Kishori Breeze stepped in to help.
Ironically, though, he needed a mobile number and email to lodge an appeal.
“I thought it would be quite an easy process to get it dropped,” Kishori said.
“You’ve got a fine for using a mobile phone while driving. You don’t have a mobile phone.
“Let’s just nip down to the office and get this fixed.”
The review, however, was rejected.
“He received a letter to say, yeah, we understand that you say that you don’t have a phone, but please go ahead and pay the fine anyway,” Kishori said.
Even when taking the matter to court, Frank’s appeal once again fell on deaf ears.
“When Frank tried to say, ‘I don’t have a mobile phone and I’ve never’… (the Magistrate) butt in and she said, ‘You do own a mobile phone’,” Kishori said.
The Byron Bay Magistrate warned Frank that if he was found guilty, he’d not only have to pay the original $362 (£187) fine, but $2,000 (£1,033) in legal costs to Revenue NSW.
Lawyer Richard Mitri said that Mr Singh would have taken a “pretty big hit” had he lost the second appeal.
He said for traffic offences it was usually assumed that drivers had done the wrong thing, making it hard to prove otherwise in court.
“It’s actually the other way around with most traffic offences,” Mr Mitry said.
“So in this case, you’ve assumed that you’ve done the wrong thing based on the fact that a camera snapped you, and the camera thought you were doing the wrong thing.”
But in an unexpected turn of events, Frank’s fine was cancelled and all of a sudden he was no longer required to appear in court.
“Ohhh, you little bloody beauty, oh how good’s that!” he said upon hearing the news.
“Now that I’ve had that news I’m going to have a shower and I’ll walk down and get myself a jug!”
NineFrank told Australian TV show A Current Affair that he thought the fine was ‘a load of s**t’[/caption]
NineHe was fined a total of $362 (£187) for the driving offence[/caption]
NineFrank claimed he way on his way to visit a friend when he was caught by cameras[/caption]