The outrageous reason driver was fined $387

A lawyer who was fined $387 and docked 10 demerit points for ‘using a phone’ while driving has claimed she was actually holding a piece of banana bread. 

Merridy Gordon was driving from Canberra to Sydney on the M5 on New Year’s Day when mobile detection cameras took a photo of the inside of her vehicle, detecting what was deemed to be her phone. 

As the fine was issued on a public holiday, it also incurred double demerit points. 

But when it arrived a few weeks later, Ms Gordon knew she had to fight it. 

She went on the Transport for NSW (TfNSW) website to see what the cameras had picked up and after enlarging the photos recognised what it was. 

Ms Gordon told Yahoo News that her phone had been down the side of her seat and that what had been detected was a slice of banana bread she had bought in Canberra for the three-hour drive to Sydney. 

The lawyer wrote to TfNSW and told them they’d made a mistake. 

‘They pretty much said ‘too bad, so sad, don’t care’ and that I’d have to take the matter to court,’ Ms Gordon said. 

The case was heard in Campbelltown, 57km south-west of the Sydney CBD, as that was the closest court to where the mobile detection camera had taken the photo. 

Ms Gordon said when shown the photo, a magistrate remarked that most mobile phones are rectangular and the supposed phone in the picture was not. 

The magistrate also said they could see the actual phone down the side of her seat. 

A man representing TfNSW said it looked a bit thin to be banana bread, ‘which is just a stupid thing to say’, Ms Gordon remarked. 

The magistrate told the lawyer TfNSW had to prove beyond reasonable doubt that she was on the phone and that he had ‘significant’ doubt. 

Ms Gordon said the ‘irate’ magistrate told TfNSW that it has ‘a responsibility to look at these photographs properly. 

‘It’s clear from the photographs there’s a significant doubt about whether she was holding a phone,’ the magistrate said.

Ms Gordon added: ‘The magistrate said to TfNSW, “Ms Gordon clearly wrote you a sensible letter and you just ignored it”,’ she recalled. 

TfNSW was ordered to pay her legal fees of $4,000, the fine was dismissed and the demerit points were reinstated. 

A spokeswoman for TfNSW, while not commenting on Ms Gordon’s individual case, said ‘it is rare for misidentification to happen’. 

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