By JOLENE OGLE
LOCAL police are “astounded” at the amount of drivers caught driving unregistered vehicles, with 170 people caught so far this year.
Noosa Heads Officer in Charge Senior Sergeant Steve McReight said it was shocking to see so many people driving unregistered cars without compulsory third party insurance.
“The main reason, we find, is people simply forget to pay their registration now stickers aren’t sent out,” he said.
Snr Sgt McReight said better policing technology that scanned number plates was also increasing the number of people caught driving unregistered vehicles, plus other traffic offences including unlicensed drivers.
Three people appeared in Noosa Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday charged with driving an unregistered vehicle.
One man was fined $1500 for the offence, which also included a fine for driving while disqualified, while another man was fined $600 for driving an unregistered car on the road, and a third man was fined a total of $1000 for three traffic offences including driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads stopped sending out registration stickers from 1 October 2014, but has since released a smart phone app that allows users to check the status of their registration, or that of a car they are going to drive.
The app is available by searching Qld Rego Check at your smart phone app store and allows the user to quickly check the registration status of any Queensland car.
