A Wagga truck driver who told police he was too "busy" to rectify several breaches after being let off on an official warning the first time has been ordered by the court to pay $42,000 in fines.
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Mitchell James Armstrong was convicted in his absence in Walgett Local Court on Tuesday of more than two dozen heavy vehicle-related charges, including two critical breaches of working longer than permitted, after he was pulled over due to speeding on Friday, February 2.
A spokesperson for NSW Police said Mr Armstrong was asked to produced a work diary - which they said was "immediately observed to be non-compliant in just the recent records" - after he was spotted travelling at 64kmh in a 50kmh zone in Walgett around 11.30am.
Police noted Mr Armstrong had been recently spoken to by police in relation to these breaches where he was issued a warning and directed to rectify his work diary - which had not been done weeks later.
"He told police that he was busy and that he was going to do it later, [and] later told police that he was just being lazy and planned to do it on the weekend," they said.
The driver's diary was then seized by police for analysis and Armstrong was later issued court attendance notices for 28 heavy vehicle driving breaches.
Armstrong did not appear in court on Tuesday, where Magistrate Fiona Toose found him guilty on all 28 matters.
He was convicted of two critical and one minor breach of driver working more than the maximum standard time, 18 instances of not recording information as prescribed by the national regulations, two counts of need keeping driving records available, not recording prescribed information in a written work diary and four counts of not recording information after starting work. He was fined $1500 for each matter.
He was further issued a penalty notice for speeding by 10 km/h which resulted in a $546 fine and three demerits.
He was ordered to pay a monetary penalty totalling $42,000.