Aussie drivers are risking enormous fines and even jail time by going dodgy deals on Facebook Marketplace.
Shady operators offering to accept fines and demerit points on behalf of other drivers – for a price – are cashing in on people desperate to keep their licence.
A report in the Canberra Times uncovered ACT Government data that showed almost 25,000 motorists have filed declarations claiming that another driver was behind the wheel of their car at the time of an offence in the first six months of this year.
Hundreds of people on Facebook Marketplace offer to accept fines and demerit points for strangers in exchange for a fee.
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We contacted three of them and found people willing to take on three demerit points for as little as $100.
Drivers simply need to hand over penalty notice and offence details to someone willing to take their rap.
But the illegal practice carries significant risk for drivers desperate to keep their licence.
Avinash Singh, principal lawyer at Astor Legal, says individuals face penalties of up to $11,000 if busted naming the wrong driver.
“Buying or selling demerit points is a criminal offence under both the Road Transport Act 2013 and the Crimes Act 1900,” he said.
“If a person makes a false statutory declaration in the process of nominating another driver, or accepting a nomination, then this becomes a more serious offence under Section 25 of the Oaths Act 1900, which carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.”
Singh says it is rare for people to be prosecuted to that extent.
But it has happened.
In 2009 former Federal Court Judge Marcus Einfeld was sentenced to three years’ jail after he tried to avoid a $77 speeding fine and was caught naming a deceased person as the driver.
Singh says investigators often have evidence that people were not driving a car at the time of an alleged offence.
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“Text messages, bank transfers and social media posts are relevant and can be used as evidence in a demerit point trading prosecution. Prosecutors have the ability to subpoena all of these items if they suspect demerit point trading has taken place,” he said.
“The most common evidence in these cases is where it is clear that the nominated driver was not physically present at the time of the infringement. This can be if they were out of the country, residing in another State, or if a camera has taken a photo of the driver and it is clearly not the nominated driver.”
Demerit point trading is one of a range of dodgy deals commonly found on social media sites such as Facebook.
Some mechanics offer inspection-free safety checks of cars, allowing unroadworthy vehicles with structural rust, bald tyres or bad brakes to remain on the road.
Others offer “odometer correction”, a practice that reduces the mileage shown on a car.
This can be done by swapping the instrument cluster in a car for one that has travelled less distance, or by reprogramming a car’s computer to show fewer kilometres on the dash.
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