The Supreme Court of Tasmania has confirmed that a Magistrate can disqualify a young driver from driving even if no conviction is recorded.
The recent ruling stems from a 2022 case involving a teenager who pleaded guilty in the Magistrates Court to driving with a prescribed illicit drug in his system.
Chief Magistrate Catherine Geason imposed a nine-month driving disqualification under the Youth Justice Act, starting in November of that year, despite not recording a conviction.
The young driver challenged the disqualification, arguing that the Magistrate “did not have the power” to impose it without a conviction because of his age, but the Supreme Court disagreed.
Chief Justice Alan Blow said the Youth Justice Act requires Magistrates to follow any other act that mandates penalties such as loss of license, like the Road Safety (Alcohol and Drugs) Act.
Acknowledging that the Youth Justice Act states that a finding of guilty without a conviction is not taken to be a conviction for any purpose, Justice Blow found that the word ‘convicts’ in the Road Safety Act should be interpreted as meaning “makes a finding of guilt” and not “imposing a conviction”.
“In my view the purpose of the disqualification provisions … is to promote road safety by preventing offenders from driving and by deterring individuals from driving under the influence of intoxicants,” Blow said.
“Interpreting the reference to a court that convicts a person as a reference to a court that finds a person guilty will promote that purpose.”
The court noted that the interpretation aligns with the Magistrates’ authority to impose fines without conviction under the Road Safety (Alcohol and Drugs) Act, a change introduced in 2017.
Due to delays, the final ruling of dismissal was delivered several months after the young driver’s disqualification period had already ended.
