A P-plater has lost her licence after being fined for using her mobile phone as a GPS.
Chiqui Eseque was pulled over by NSW Police on May 20, 2022, after officers noticed her car’s headlights were not turned on.
Officers noticed her phone was placed on a hands free phone holder inside her car showing a map on the screen.
Learner and provisional licence holders under NSW law, are not permitted to use their phone at all while driving – even if it’s just for directions.
The law catches many drivers out because there are no restrictions on L and P-plate drivers using a dash board GPS device.
A P-plater has lost her licence after being fined for using her mobile phone as a GPS
Eseque was charged with using a mobile phone while she was driving.
However she fought the charge arguing she was just using it for directions and that there was no SIM card in the phone.
Magistrate Hugh Donnelly found Eseque not guilty of the charge as the phone could not make or receive calls because it wasn’t connected to a mobile network.
‘I find in this case that I am to accept that the definition of a mobile phone just cannot be anything, there has to be some limitation to what the expression means,’ Magistrate Donnelly said.
‘This is a case where the phone itself, there was evidence of having no SIM card.’
The ruling however was overturned after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) appealed against the decision and brought the case before the NSW Supreme Court in December.
Justice Monica Schmidt ruled last week that Eseque broke the law despite the phone not having a SIM card.
Learner and provisional licence holders under NSW law, are not permitted to use their phone at all while driving – even if it’s just for directions
‘A communicative capacity is not required in order for a user to look at everything that can be displayed on such a phone, as the rules recognise,’ Justice Schmidt said.
‘It cannot sensibly be concluded that a mobile phone only becomes one when a SIM card is placed into it and ceases being one, whenever such a card is removed.’
Eseque was ordered to pay the DPP’s costs.
Drivers in NSW can be fined $387 and will lose five demerit points for illegally using a mobile phone.