Questions about expiations

I received an expiation notice for being the owner or driver of an unregistered vehicle but I didn’t receive a registration reminder or renewal notice. Is the expiation notice valid?

There is no legal requirement for a vehicle owner to receive a registration reminder or a registration renewal notice.

It is the vehicle owner’s responsibility to ensure that their vehicle is registered before the vehicle is driven on a road.

Therefore, an expiation notice issued for an expired registration offence remains valid whether or not a registration reminder or renewal notice has been received.

Find out how to register an unregistered vehicle.

Do I lose demerit points for an unregistered vehicle offence?

No.

Why have I received an expiation notice for an unregistered vehicle offence when I have just paid my registration?

Registration paid before the expiry date will commence the day after the expiry date.

Registration paid after the expiry date will also be backdated to the day after the expiry date. However, the vehicle is still deemed to be unregistered for the period between the expiry date and time of payment.

I received an expiation notice for exceeding the default 50 kph speed limit but I didn’t see a speed limit sign. Does that make a difference?

The default speed limit within a built-up area is 50 kph unless signed otherwise. There is no legal requirement to have 50 kph signs in built-up areas.

This rule applies throughout built up areas in South Australia and was introduced on 1 March 2003 as a road safety initiative aimed at reducing death and serious injury on our roads.

I have been given an expiation notice for speeding but I couldn’t have been speeding because I had my cruise control on or I was using my GPS. Is the fine wrong?

Cruise controls and GPS systems are not as accurate as the speed detection devices used by the police.

The police regularly test their devices and the police devices are accepted as being accurate by Courts in South Australia.

I received an expiation notice for disobeying a red traffic light but the photo shows me after the stop line. Was it a mistake to issue me the notice?

The red light detection zone is after the stop line. Cameras in South Australia do not detect vehicles that fail to stop before the stop line.

There are two main offences:

entering the marked foot crossing (identified by two parallel broken white lines past the stop line)
entering the intersection contrary to a red light (where two or more roads meet and is the area where vehicles travelling on different roads might collide, there are no painted lines to identify the intersection)

If the photographs show your vehicle enter the marked foot crossing or intersection contrary to the red light then the notice was correctly issued.

Can my penalty be reduced without going to court?

The fines and demerit points for each offence are set by Government Regulation.

The police have no legal power to reduce the fine or demerit points.

If you have difficulty paying the fine contact the Fines Unit on 1800 659 538 who can assist with payment options.

Why do I have to pay a Victims of Crime levy?

Since 1969, South Australia introduced legislation that provided compensation to victims of crime.

Provision is made for compensation to be paid into the Victims of Crime Fund through:

money provided by Parliament
a proportion of fines paid by offenders
confiscated proceeds of crime or
a levy imposed on convictions and expiation offences.

To finalise payment of an expiation notice both the fine and the levy must be paid.

I want to give a third party authority to act on my behalf, what do I need to do?

In order for a third party to act on your behalf, you will need to provide the Expiation Notice Branch with express permission, including the details of the person/s you wish to authorize to act on your behalf.

I submitted a review but it was unsuccessful. I still want to dispute my notice or seek a further review?

One of the options on the back of an expiation notice is to apply for a review of the notice on the grounds that the offence was trifling.

Trifling is defined in Section 4(2) of the Expiation of Offences Act, 1996.

You are only entitled to have Expiation Notice Branch review your notice once.

If you are not happy with the review you have the option of either paying the fine or electing to be prosecuted.

I want further evidence in relation to my Expiation Notice such as the issuing officers body worn video, detection device calibration certificates etc. How can I get this information?

The Expiation Notice Branch is not able to supply this evidence as part of the Branch’s administrative review process, however, it may be made available to you by the police prosecutor during normal pre-trial disclosure, should you elect to be prosecuted.

Expiation Notice Branch have not accepted my statutory declaration. Why is that?

As statutory declarations are legal documents they must be filled out properly, if not, they cannot be accepted and will be returned.

Common missing information is:

the location it was witnessed
the registration number of the vehicle
the address of the nominated driver.

I was given an expiation notice because the owner of the car has nominated me as the driver on a statutory declaration. Can I nominate another driver?

The law provides a defence to the owner of a motor vehicle detected by a camera speeding or disobeying a red traffic light to nominate the driver of the vehicle at the time of the offence.

The law does not permit the nominated driver to nominate another driver. For that reason the police will not accept a statutory declaration from a nominated driver nominating another driver.

The nominated driver should consider the options on the rear of the expiation notice and either pay the notice or elect to be prosecuted. If you are to be prosecuted, the person who nominated you as the driver may be required to come to court to explain why they nominated you.

I received an Enforcement Warning Notice, what does that mean?

If the ENB has received a statutory declaration or other document sent by the vehicle owner which is not accepted ENB must, before enforcing the expiation notice, give an expiation enforcement warning notice.

By law an expiation enforcement warning notice fee, is added to the unpaid expiation fee.

I had an expiation notice revoked by the Fines Unit and I didn’t get another notice. Should I recieve another expiation notice?

When an enforced expiation notice is revoked by the Fines Enforcement and Recovery Unit the law deems that the expiation notice is issued for the first time on the date that it was revoked. You will not receive another expiation notice for the same offence from the police.

If you have any further questions regarding your revoked notice contact the ENB Call Centre on 8463 4388.