All remaining COVID-19-related fines in NSW, worth tens of millions of dollars, could be cancelled following a fresh court challenge which aims to have a specific type of fine issued during lockdowns declared invalid.
In November last year, 33,121 of the 62,138 fines handed out since the start of the pandemic were withdrawn after Revenue NSW conceded in court that they were not valid.
Redfern Legal Centre, which brought the case, filed a fresh challenge last week in the hope it will prompt the cancellation of the remaining 29,017 fines for being similarly defective.
The plaintiff in the latest case, a 37-year-old woman, was homeless and living in a van in September 2021 when she left Sydney because she was offered accommodation with a friend in South Australia.
A local resident spotted her van parked in Wentworth, in regional NSW, as she waited for permission to cross the border, and police issued her a $3000 fine for “leaving greater Sydney for prescribed purposes without a permit”.
The woman said police did not seem to take her living situation into account and told her to stay where she was, before returning the next day with the fine.
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