A man caught by police when he took his partner out to celebrate getting a house was fined $400 for driving while his licence was suspended in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on August 3.
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Mark Radford was stopped by police on April 6 and after checks told that his licence had been suspended for three months because of demerit points.
Mr Radford initially denied he was aware of the suspension and said he had only renewed the licence a couple of weeks earlier.
According to the police prosecutor, he later "came clean", admitting he had contacted VicRoads and declined to take a 12-month good driving behaviour bond option.
Mr Radford, who told the court he had been homeless for four or five months and only recently got a house, had a record of prior driving offences but nothing in recent years.
Judicial registrar Allison Vaughan said while her usual sentence for the offence was a $750 fine, given Mr Radford, who pleaded guilty to the unlicensed driving charge, was "just back on [his] feet", she had handed him a lesser penalty.
Driver who refused drug test 'felt targeted'
A woman refused to do an oral drug test because she would "lose her licence anyway" and "had a feeling she was being targeted", the Bendigo Magistrates' Court heard on August 3.
According to the police prosecutor, Rebecca Brown refused several requests to comply with officers' requests to do an oral fluid test when she was stopped in Howard Street, Epsom on April 25, and "her "attitude was poor".
The court heard Ms Brown had previously refused a drug test in 2022, and judicial registrar Allison Vaughan sentenced her to a mandatory minimum period of four years disqualification from driving, with conviction, and a fine of $1000 plus $90 administration costs.
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