Nine fines for innocent motorist (59)
Duplicate registration plates cause grief for innocent female motorist.
An innocent woman is being harassed with traffic fines pertaining to her vehicle registration number, yet not to her vehicle.
Hildegarde Janse van Rensburg (59) who resides in the Fourways area and drives a white BMW sedan, has been receiving fines for a duplicated registration plate since 2011. The motorist responsible for these fines seems to reside in the Roodepoort area, given evidence of where the fines were issued (that is in the Record’s possession).
As early as 1 August 2011, Janse van Rensburg received her first fine for allegedly driving 111km per hour in a 80km per hour zone on Christiaan de Wet Road.
“I never travel on the West Rand,” Janse van Rensburg told the Record, saying that she “barely knew how to get to the Roodepoort Magistrates’ Court.”
Janse van Rensburg submitted evidence to the Record of nine fines and three notices of summons issued to her wrongfully. Of these fines, the photographed bakkie with a duplicate registration plate averaged 40km per hour over the speed limit. The total amount on the fines came to R5 500. The fines were issued after the bakkie had been photographed several times on Christiaan de Wet Road and Ontdekkers Road, once on Main Reef Road near Braam Fischerville and once on the N14 near Krugersdorp.
“The fines kept coming despite my regular correspondence with JMPD and even deregistering my vehicle and getting a new registration number.”
Alex Parkes of the JMPD Number Plate Investigation Unit issued a notice on 17 October 2011 stating that “a Grey Toyota Hilux LDV is illegally being driven with [Janse van Rensburg’s] registration number ZCJ 767 GP”.
His comment in the notice was that “the registration number has been circulated on the wanted list on our ANPR roadblock system”.
It is, however, two years later and as Janse van Rensburg says, the fines keep coming. The most recent fine in the Record’s possession is dated 21 July of this year, and the offender was issued a second fine 20 minutes later on the same road. She appeared in the Roodepoort Magistrates’ Court again as recently as Tuesday 15 October to exonerate herself of paying the due fines. The magistrate then recommended that she opens a case with the Roodepoort Police. Although the case number has been confirmed with the Record, Roodepoort Police are yet to comment on the charges laid against the offender.
