Varea v Land Transport Authority [2004] FJHC 88; HAA0016J.2004S (8 April 2004)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF FIJI
AT SUVA
APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO: HAA0016 OF 2004S

Between:

VIKI VAREA
Appellant

And:

LAND TRANSPORT AUTHORITY
Respondent

Hearing: 2nd April 2004
Judgment: 8th April 2004

No appearance for Appellant
Mr. V. Vosarogo for LTA

JUDGMENT

This is an appeal against conviction and sentence. At the hearing of the appeal, the Appellant failed to appear, despite service of the notice of hearing on him at his address in Raiwaqa. I proceeded to judgment. However, two days before judgment, the Appellant filed written submissions, which I have considered.

The Appellant was charged with driving an unregistered vehicle. The charge read as follows:

Statement of Offence

Driving unregistered motor vehicle: Contrary to section 4 (1) (3) of the Land Transport Act 1998.

Particulars of Offence

VIKI VAREA PENE on the 24th day of May 2003 at Suva in the Central Division drove a motor vehicle registration number CW351 in Rodwell Road when the said vehicle was not duly registered with the Land Transport Authority and have its vehicle registration expired on the 6th day of May 2003.

He was convicted of the offence on the 22nd of October 2003 and sentenced to a fine of $350.00. His grounds of appeal can be summarised as follows:

(a) The prosecution witness No. 1 gave contradictory evidence;

(b) PW1 could not prove that the LTA records were correct because the vehicle registration had actually expired on the 30th of May 2003.

(c) The LTA was at fault for issuing the Appellant with an inaccurate vehicle registration sticker.

His submissions (entitled “Further Grounds of Appeal”) are that the Magistrate failed to consider discrepancies in the prosecution case, failed to take account of the expiry date of the registration of CW351 which he said was the 30th of May 2003 as specified in the receipt he received and that the vehicle sticker which expired on the 6th of May 2003 was an error on the part of the LTA.

The Appellant was tried on the 22nd of October 2003. He was unrepresented. PW1 was Satish Prakash, a Land Transport Officer. He said that on the 24th of May 2003, at 11.30am he was at Rodwell Road when he stopped the Appellant’s car CW351 and found that his registration had expired on 6th May 2003. He confirmed this with the LTA Headquarters and issued the Appellant with a Traffic Infringement Notice. The TIN alleged that the Appellant was driving an unregistered vehicle on the 24th of May 2003. Under cross-examination, PW1 agreed that the Appellant’s certificate of fitness had been issued on 30.5.02 to expire on 30.5.03. He also agreed that the Appellant’s third party insurance expired on 30.5.03. However he said that the Appellant had agreed that he was committing an offence when he was stopped.

PW2 was Mudaliar Jitendra who had been on duty with PW1 at Rodwell Road. He corroborated PW1’s evidence. He said that the expiry date on the vehicle sticker was the same as the expiry date given to them by the licencing sticker. His answers to questions of the court were:

“The registration sticker showed expiry date as 6.5.2003. It’s an error.

The sticker was not issued in error. There was no error.”

PW3 was Amelia Waqavuki a clerk at the LTA. She said that she told Satish Prakash that the expiry date for CW351 was 6.5.03. This was the information she retrieved from the LTA computer on 24th May 2003. She said that the certificate was valid from 7th February 2002 until 6th May 2003. The Third Party Insurance was to expire on the 1st of June 2003 and the certificate of fitness was issued on 30th May 2002 to expire on the 29th of May 2003. She said that in order to register a vehicle Third Party Insurance and a certificate of fitness were necessary. She said:

“The difference in the dates of registration and Third Party is that the registration will always show the next date after the expiry date of the previous registration.”

And under cross-examination:

“Registration is 1 year from the last day of registration.”

The Appellant chose to give sworn evidence. He said that on the 24th of May 2003, LTA Officers seized his vehicle because of arrears in wheel tax. He said he was licensed on the 24th of May 2003.

However the evidence led in the lower court suggested that his vehicle was not registered on the 24th of May 2003. He may have had a certificate of fitness on that day, and he may have paid for registration on the 30th of May 2002, but he was charged with driving an unregistered vehicle. The learned Magistrate, quite correctly, found the charge proved beyond reasonable doubt. The vehicle was not registered on the 24th of May.

There is no merit in this appeal and it is dismissed.

Nazhat Shameem
JUDGE

At Suva
8th April 2004