Road_to_Solo_driving_handbook (2)

Rules and responsibilities
154
Imprisonment
In some cases, a court may impose a jail
term as well as a monetary fine.
Infringements Court
The role of the Infringements Court
is to administratively resolve unpaid
infringement notices. These offences
generally have fixed penalties and include
parking offences and driving offences.
Fines Victoria
Fines Victoria will administer a new model
for collecting and enforcing infringements
and court fines in Victoria. The new model
will make it simpler for people to deal
with their fines and will become the single,
central point-of-contact for individuals with
outstanding fines.
As directed by Fines Victoria, sanctions
will be applied on a customer’s registration,
licence or vehicle status. These sanctions
will include individual registration or licence
suspensions, not renewing registrations
or licences, not granting a registration or
licence, not allowing individuals to drive
other vehicles, not enabling individuals
to replace or change number plates on
vehicles, and cancelling the registration
of company vehicles.
Demerit points
Demerit points are one type of penalty that
will be recorded against your driver licence
or learner permit when you commit certain
traffic offences anywhere in Australia.
Demerit points vary in number depending
on the severity of the offence.
Learner and probationary drivers who
incur five or more demerit points in any
twelve month period, or twelve or more
points in any three year period, may have
their licence suspended for three months
or more.
If your licence is not suspended because
you choose a twelve month extended
demerit point period, any further demerit
points would lead to at least a six months
licence suspension. This gives drivers the
opportunity to learn from their mistakes,
but makes licence loss a reality for
persistent offenders.
Further information and a full list of
offences and demerit points can be found
at the VicRoads website at
vicroads.vic.gov.au.
Penalties for learner permit holders
If a learner permit is cancelled or
suspended, it may affect the permit
holder’s eligibility to apply for a licence,
as a learner permit must be held for
a continuous period of 12 months
immediately before applying for a licence,
for those under 21 years of age.
For those who are 21 but under 25 years
the period is six months, and it is three
months if you are 25 years or over.