Home >Police Enforcement > Seizure/Confiscation > Australia: Cars Seized Based on Hearsay

Related News Colorado: Voters Reject Mandatory Vehicle Impound Washington Supreme Court Protects Innocent Owners from Car Seizure Australia: Car Seizure Law Used to Take Bike from Little Girl Illinois: Little City Brings in Big Cash from Towing Illinois State Police Seize and Keep Desirable Cars for Personal Use View Main Topics: Camera Enforcement    Speed Cameras    Red Light Cameras    Revenue from Cameras    Camera Accuracy    Engineering/Signals Police Enforcement    Random Checkpoints    Speed Limits/Traps    Tickets and Cash    Seizure/Confiscation    Parking Tickets    Taxes and Tolls    Drunk Driving Laws Miscellaneous Issues    Miscellaneous    Hypocrisy    Bad Policy and Injustice    Propaganda    New Technologies    Privacy Issues The Revolt    Protests    Camera Destruction Subscribe via RSS or E-Mail Back To Front Page

4/9/2007 Australia: Cars Seized Based on Hearsay Victoria, Australia seizes cars based on vague complaints about anti-social driving. Residents of the state of Victoria, Australia can now settle scores by calling the police and ordering the seizure of someone's car. Hearsay evidence that a car may have had a "sustained loss of traction" is enough for police to seize a vehicle. So far in the city of Wodonga, three cars have been taken based solely on citizen complaints. "Under the anti-hoon laws if a person signs a statement we can impound the car," Wodonga Police Sergeant Cameron Roberts told the Border Mail newspaper. On Thursday, an off-duty police officer saw a twenty-year-old "fishtail" around a roundabout in a Ford Falcon. Instead of pursuing the youth accused of dangerous driving, he called in to have the car seized the next day. The police will collect A$204 in fees for the car's return on Tuesday. On a second accusation, police keep the car three months and on a third police will sell the car and keep the profit. Between July 2006, when the so-called anti-hoon legislation was enacted, and February 2007, Victoria police seized 925 cars and 109 motorcycles -- an average of nearly five vehicles per day. Source: Nowhere left for hoons (The Border Mail (Australia), 4/9/2007) Regional News: Other news about Australia Permanent Link for this item Return to Front Page

Front Page | Get Updates | Site Map | News Achive | Search | theNewspaper.com: A journal of the politics of driving