Challenging speeding ticket saddles Oz truckie with a 10000-dollar payout!

BRISBANE - A truck driver in Australia will have to pay thousands in legal costs after he challenged a speeding ticket and appealed his case in three different courts.

North Queensland man Steven Edward Osgood was caught doing 93kmh in an 80kmh zone on the Kennedy Highway near Kuranda on June 23, 2006 by a device on a police car travelling in the opposite direction.

When he was given a ticket for speeding, Osgood decided to challenge the reading and ended up at the Queensland Court of Appeal.

His first battle was a three-day summary trial in the Cairns Magistrates Court in September 2008, which ended with a magistrate finding Osgood guilty of speeding.

He was fined 250 dollars and ordered to pay the prosecution’s costs of 7209.13 dollars which included a fee charged by a traffic radar device expert who was a witness called by the Queensland Police Service.

Osgood appealed the decision in the Cairns District Court, but he lost the fight and was ordered to pay a further 1800 dollars in prosecution costs.

Still not satisfied, he decided to appeal in the Queensland Court of Appeal, last month, representing himself in court.

He claimed the court’s acceptance of the accuracy of the radar device was “biased” and claimed his appeal ought to be heard before a specialist court not presided over by judges, but technically qualified people.

The Queensland Court of Appeal dismissed his application on September 7 and ordered he pay further undisclosed costs.

The order will most likely tip Osgood’s legal bill over the 10,000-dollar mark.

In a unanimous decision, Justices Catherine Holmes, John Muir and Margaret White said they upheld the District Court decision.

“The judge’s decision was amply justified on the evidence. An appeal … has no real prospect of success,” the Brisbane Times quoted Justice White as saying in the judgment. (ANI)