Police say they are pleased with a High Court ruling that motorists with an expired licence are unlicensed drivers and can therefore be punished accordingly.
The ruling, in a reserved decision of Justice Richard Heron in the High Court at Palmerston North, followed a controversial case involving former Government press secretary Moana Sinclair.
The police national road safety manager, Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald, said police were pleased with the decision, which clarified the law in this area.
"We are currently studying the judgment and it is unlikely that we will make procedural changes until the appeal period has expired," he said.
In his judgment, Justice Heron said the Land Transport Act had deliberately or unintentionally omitted words which would have put their meaning beyond doubt.
However, he had "no doubt" that expired licence holders were intended to "fall into the net" and face sanctions which included being forbidden to drive or having a vehicle confiscated.
"I am prepared to find that the broad definition of 'unlicensed' covers the situation of someone who has allowed his or her driver licence to expire," he said.
He referred the matter back to the Levin District Court, where charges against Sinclair, aged 44, had earlier been dismissed.
Charges were laid after Sinclair was stopped by the police near Marton on February 13 doing 138 km/h in Conservation Minister Sandra Lee's ministerial car. She was not carrying her driver's licence and police checks found that she had not upgraded to the new photo-type licence after her old licence expired.
The officer issued her with a ticket for speeding and a notice forbidding her to drive on the grounds that she had not obtained a new photo licence, but still allowed her to drive away.
Forty minutes later she was stopped near Foxton. Police forcibly removed her from the car and arrested her for driving while forbidden and resisting arrest.
They then impounded the car under section 96 of the Land Transport Act, which calls for mandatory seizure of the vehicle if an officer believes the driver has previously been forbidden to drive because he or she was unlicensed or the licence had expired.
Levin District Court Judge Mark Perkins ruled that there was a distinction between a driver whose licence had expired and one who was unlicensed, and that police had no right to stop Sinclair from driving simply because she was not carrying a photo licence.
Police appealed against Judge Perkins' decision.
In his decision released on Wednesday, Justice Heron said having all drivers issued with a photo licence was part of the long-term road safety purposes of the legislation and it would not work if the only sanction for failure to re-license was a charge of driving without a current licence.
The "integrity" of the reforms would be seriously affected if a wide-ranging exception to enforcing the new licence regime was made, he said.
A factsheet issued by the Land Transport Safety Authority had clearly contemplated the consequences for holders of expired licences, Justice Heron said.
"No one can be said to have been taken by surprise."
- NZPA
Police welcome court's expired-licence ruling
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