$600 crabs

[JEWIENEWIE]

Well, after a very big night last night, finaly got my shit together to go and get the pots after a overnight soak, its mid morning. Cruising down the highway to ballina feeling rather worse for wear when I pass a highway patrol car on the shoulder with the radar gun out. All good, sittin on 90km, when I think to myself glad i didnt do a early run after all the beers I had last night, when next thing he is on my tail all lights blasing...
I pull over thinking whats goin on here. He asked is it my boat I was towing to which I said yes, he then proceeded to tell me my rego is not current, coming up canceled and has been since 2010, wtf.........
He walks off to do some more ckecks, Calls me out of my car and shows me on his computer, he is correct, no rego!
At this point i am just standing there trying to figure this out as wife said she has paid it for sure but i cant prove nothing roadside. He knows it is a genuine stuff up some where, not intentional but proceeds to write me up.........$632 double fines..............He wont budge, says that he legally should have me unhook the boat and have me tow it away on a truck. I am literally 1km from boat ramp and he instruct s me to turn around and go straight home. Now this was a problem, I explain to him that I have to go and get the crab pots, I am not even a km away, no, wouldnt play the game, then pulls out the breatho, #% $/ . First go he is not real happy, I am thinking its 10am, surely I am right here but apparenty not, asks when my last drink was and about midnight was the answer. Gets me to take a second go and I am shi%% ing bricks right now.........gives me a shake of the head and says I am that close to over the limit its ridiculous, but I am just under by a bees willy!
Hands me the ticket, tells me to get proof of rego and contest the ticket and blasts off....Happy Aust Day to you to i thought. So, here i am, sitting in the car, kids wondering what the go with all that was, only 900m from boat ramp and my crab pots waiting for me, hangover gettin worse by the minute. What do i do, do as he says and go straight home or take a punt, go get the pots and hope like christ he is not waiting for me back up the road or at the ramp.......................
So i hope the missus like her $600 crabs, about $120 each this morning, and a bloody good lesson about thinking when your right to drive..........
JN

[banksmister]

Look at the bright side you saved 4 years x $90 [i think] rego.

[wayno60]

So what vehicle was she paying the rego on???

[JEWIENEWIE]

We have a business with several trailers, she is going through all that now to see whats going on. He reckons it hasn't been registered since 2010 which we find not right at all, I had to get another plate in 2010 as my mates bull mastiff chewed the other one off the trailer, crazy bloody thing, and I know its been registered since then for sure, think there might have been a blue when I was given new plates for same trailer. ?....I am hoping
JN

[wayno60]

I was going to say, id be lookin in the wardrobe for new shoes or dresses....

[JEWIENEWIE]

More like a new surfboard stashed in the shed amongst the other 30 or so......
JN

[banksmister]

Are they still giving out rego stickers in nsw, the brains trust in qld stopped it for trailers and cars in October.
Its going to be a great money raiser for the government, all to save them $5 for the sticker & postage.

[Crunchy]

New technology, the equipment does an auto check on your rego plate and if not registered will flag it up...

[scottar]

Well, that sucks. Don't think you had it all on your own though. The local blue brigade had their ute parked at the top of the ramp at Raby Bay today doing the usual Australia Day blow in the bag. No dramas with that but the sneaky buggers had a radar gun as well and were pinging people for not backing off soon enough coming in to the ramp. Saw him get one at least in the 10 minutes we were there retrieving.

[astro66]

so from 30 meters out they couldnt see them ??? wish they would do that around here ...

[scottar]

so from 30 meters out they couldnt see them ??? wish they would do that around here ...

You could see them no worries at all. They are there fairly regularly but normally just the breatho - I didn't see the gun until I hit the ramp but wasn't looking for it either. I don't have an issue with people getting done for speeding if it is blatant - just hope we aren't getting down to 1 or 2 knots over and they need the gun for the accuracy. I agree there should be more of it on the water. Both the sunny and the goldy have massive issues with clowns that think they are above the law in this regard. I regularly fish the Nerang through to about 8am and you see the same boats come down the river time after time through the 6 Knot zones - one in particular in his ski boat with about a 30 foot rooster tail on his way to get his morning coffee at Marina Mirage.

[JEWIENEWIE]

Well, I sat down with the RMS or RTA chick this morning to see what's going on with this. And unfortunately there has been no stuff up except on my behalf for this. As i have a business with several trailers involved, one of which is classed as a boat trailer even though it is nothing like a boat trailer, my accounts were under the assumption that that was my boat trailer, and so did the wife, so this has been overlooked for the last 5 YEARS......Wife was paying the work trailer thinking it was my boat trailer, accounts would go to pay work trailer rego and see it was already paid and it all stopped there with everyone thinking all was paid. As the rego was cancelled in late 09, no notices were issued and as far as the Authorities go, it doesn't exist. I cant believe that i have been driving this boat trailer all around the country, going interstate numerous times and travelling thousands of kilometres over the last 5 yrs and only getting caught out now. This was by no means intentional and thank Chirst i was not involved in a accident.............Now i need to go and get a Blue Slip and all that stuff............I will be handling the rego on this one from now on.........
JN

[daveo17]

5 years that's amazing what luck

[aussiebasser]

I got done for towing an unregistered trailer because I had paid the rego on the wrong trailer. I bought the Jetski trailer second hand from a dealer on the Sunshine Coast, paid the rego when it was due, and when I was putting the sticker on a couple of months later I found it was the wrong rego number. The dealer had two trailers and transferred them incorrectly and the guy who bought the other trailer hadn't renewed his, so I'd paid his rego. In the three days that this was known about I had a weekend away booked with the skis. We were going to sort it out on the Friday, but its in the missus' name and she was late getting up there. Got pulled over on the way home and booked for unregistered trailer. I had all the paperwork with me and the label, but he didn't care. I wrote to his boss explaining and he upheld the ticket. Fortunately, North Coast Boating came good and reimbursed me for the fine and sorted it all out.
Every police car in Queensland now has number plate recognition and reads every plate they pass. An alarm goes off if the rego is expired. There are also enforcing the 45 degree vision rule, where you boat trailer number plate must be visible from any 45 degree angle from the back of the trailer. Mine wasn't and I got a warning for that. I was OK with the rated shackles though........................

[AndrewB]

Same thing happened to me a couple of years back, 2 boat trailers & sons bike trailer. I just pay the bills when they arrive and the little boat trailer must have slipped thru the cracks so got caught after about 4 years unregistered, couldn't believe it.
Copper was real good about it, went to the trouble of turning off his recorder and told me he would turn a blind eye if I wanted to go fishing as I was on my way at the time.
My recollection was the fine was less than the rego, nowhere near $600.