Kilgariff v The Queen

The appellant, Kilgariff, appealed against his conviction and sentence for driving an unregistered vehicle, contending that his mistake was honest and reasonable. The matter was heard in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, where the appellant argued that he had not received notice of his vehicle's registration renewal before its expiration. The appellant had notified the RMS of a change of address prior to the renewal date, but the RMS had already sent the renewal notice to the old address. The appellant received a traffic infringement notice for driving an unregistered vehicle, but did not receive the reminder notice from the RMS until after the expiration of the registration.

The central legal issue before the court was whether the appellant's mistake in not knowing that his vehicle's registration had expired was honest and reasonable, thereby constituting a valid defence under the applicable legislation. The court considered the appellant's actions in notifying the RMS of his changed address and the RMS's failure to update their records accordingly. The court also took into account the appellant's failure to routinely check the vehicle's registration label, which notified him of the expiration date.

The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal held that the appellant's mistake was honest and reasonable, and therefore accepted the defence. The court noted that the appellant had taken steps to update his address with the RMS, but the RMS failed to act on that information. Furthermore, the court considered the appellant's failure to routinely check the registration label as a minor oversight, given that he had otherwise taken steps to ensure his vehicle was registered. The appeal was allowed, the conviction was recorded, and the sentence passed by the Local Court at Sutherland on 2 February 2015 was set aside.