She is perhaps the bravest traffic offender on planet Earth. Between July 2009 and December 2013, she had been travelling on EastLink and CityLink without paying a penny. Meet 27-year-old Isabelle Mares Weir, an Australian driver who had accumulated a jaw dropping 1,196 infringement warrants for total fines of $342,050 (£212,000; RM1.1 million). Her warrants, if stacked, would amount to a pile of paperwork about 30cm high.

 

On Mar 2014, the Melbourne woman was arrested on 1038 warrants for total fines of $294,362.40, and was subsequently charged with 158 other matters, totalling $47,687.60. But she refused to pay. Subsequently, she failed to appear at the Dandenong Magistrates Court to answer a summons over the stockpile of 1038 individual warrants. Hence, her bail has been forfeited.

Unpaid tolls are the third-highest area of unpaid infringements after traffic violations and local council fines, such as parking tickets and pet-related fines. As of June last year, there were more than 1.6 million outstanding warrants for roads tolls with a value of more than $450 million. And in a bid to reclaim the money in unpaid tolls, road authorities sent thousands of reminder notices and late notification letters. Ms Weir is one of thousands who ignored such reminders.

 

In spite of facing up to 6½-years in jail, Isabelle Mares Weir’s stubbornness (or rather bravery?) bears fruit today when the single mum of southeast Melbourne appeared at the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court yesterday. But instead of ending up in jail, her $342,050 in unpaid road fines was slashed to just $16,000 – that’s a whopping 95% discount. Amazingly, Magistrate Pauline Spencer discharged the bulk of the fines and ordered her to pay just $50 a month over the next 26 years.

Her defence solicitor, Adam Maloney, told the court Weir suffered from borderline personality disorder, had a history of alcohol abuse and had to care for her eldest son, who had autism and speech and behavioural issues. In addition, Weir, an unemployed single mother of four, received a carer’s allowance from Centrelink and a family tax benefit which amounted to $1,240 (£770; RM4,025) a fortnight, and she had not been able to work for four years because of her son’s condition.

Apparently, Magistrate Pauline Spencer agreed with the argument that a six-and-a-half year jail term would be “disproportionate” and “unduly harsh” given Weir’s “special circumstances”. Ms Spencer further said some people could not pay tolls for a range of reasons, including mental health, drug and alcohol addiction and financial disadvantage. Thus, the kind hearted judge ordered the serial toll evader to pay just $50 a month, over the next 26 years (*grin*).

 

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October 3rd, 2014 by financetwitter

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