Yahoo Finance Sweet relief for woman fined $500 for ‘eating a Magnum’
A Melbourne woman has won her fight after copping a $496 fine for eating a Magnum ice-cream while driving.
The mum was fined for allegedly talking on her mobile phone while driving, but it turned out she was simply enjoying a sweet treat.
Michelle Course, 34, was driving in Victoria’s North Warrandyte and was pulled over by a policeman on the afternoon of 2 November, 2020.
She was handed a penalty of four demerit points as well as the fine.
“There’s no way that I could be eating my Magnum Ego and holding my phone and driving, all at the same time,” she told A Current Affair.
When the policeman pulled her over, she still had her ice cream wrapper and stick she had placed on the console, she added.
“So I had everything there to show. And later on, embarrassingly enough, I still had chocolate on my t-shirt from eating it.”
Course was even able to present phone records showing she had not made a call or sent a text around the time she was driving.
She also contacted the police to show them dashcam evidence of her enjoying the ice-cream.
Luckily for Course, the case didn’t reach the courts as the fine was revoked a week before she was set to appear.
“Common sense has prevailed and the fine has been dropped," Course said.
“I was contacted a few days before the court date and I was very grateful that the system had worked and that justice had come about.”
Course said she had no hard feelings towards the policeman who fined her because he was “just trying to do his job”.
“I have a lot of respect for the police force and what they do,” she said.
Course’s lawyer, Justin Lawrence, said Aussies should not be afraid to contest unfair fines.
“It's on people to work as hard as they can to prove their evidence. If they're prepared to do it and hand up all the material to a magistrate, I think the law will be on their side,” Lawrence said.
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