Parvez v Roads and Maritime Services [2014] NSWCATOD 13

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Parvez v Roads and Maritime Services [2014] NSWCATOD 13 Hearing dates: 22 January 2014 Decision date: 13 March 2014 Jurisdiction: Occupational Division Before: S Leal, Senior Member Decision: The decision under review is affirmed Catchwords: Taxi driver authority - cancellation - false statutory declarations - seriousness Legislation Cited: Passenger Transport Act 1990 - Passenger Transport Regulation 2007 - Administrative Decisions Review Act 1997 Cases Cited: McDonald v Director General of Social Security (1984) 1 FCR 354 Australian Broadcasting Tribunal v Bond (1990) 170 CLR 321 Saadieh v Director General, Department of Transport [1999] NSWADT 68 Lal v Director-General, Department of Transport [2001] NSWADT 74 Sobey v Commercial and Private Agents Board [1979] 22 SASR 70 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Mohd Parvez (Applicant) Roads and Maritime Services (Respondent) Representation: M Parvez (Applicant in person) Smythe Wozniak (Respondent) File Number(s): 133360

reasons for decision

Introduction 1Mr Mohd Parvez was born in Bangladesh and is a citizen of South Africa. In 2009, he was granted a temporary visa to study in Australia and in 2010 he was issued with an unrestricted NSW driver's licence. He was granted an authority to drive taxi-cabs in July 2012. 2Mr Parvez was issued with a penalty infringement notice for proceeding through a red light camera on 8 September 2012. On the same day, he was issued with a second penalty infringement notice for exceeding the relevant speed limit. Both incidents were recorded on camera. 3In relation to each offence, Mr Parvez completed a statutory declaration stating that he had not been the driver of the taxi-cab at the relevant times. Instead he nominated Mr Sayem Chowdhury as the driver on both occasions. According to records held by Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), Mr Chowdhury is not an authorised taxi-cab driver. 4In August 2013, Mr Parvez participated in a record of interview with officers of RMS. In the course of the interview, Mr Parvez admitted to swearing the false declarations, conceding that that he had in fact been the driver of the taxi-cab in question, namely taxi-cab T2345, when the offences were committed. He agreed that he had signed in as the driver of T2345 for 8 September 2012 and had completed the necessary worksheet to confirm this. He told the RMS officers that he had been unaware that it was an offence to swear a false declaration under the Oaths Act 1900. 5In September 2013, Mr Parvez was issued with a Notice to Show Cause as to why his authority should not be cancelled and on 7 November 2013, his authority was cancelled. 6Mr Parvez has lodged an application for review with this Tribunal (formerly the Administrative Decisions Tribunal (NSW)). His application for a stay of the decision to cancel his driver authority was refused on 10 December 2013.