Daryl Leah Gee pleaded guilty to being the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident occasioning bodily harm, failing to report the incident to police, driving a vehicle involved in an incident that failed to stop immediately and for as long as necessary, having false number plates, no authority to drive and using an unlicensed vehicle on a road.
The prosecutor said Gee was driving in Port Kennedy when she struck another car that had pulled in front of her at the intersection of Bakewell Drive and Warnbro Sound Avenue.
The driver of the other vehicle received broken bones in his right foot, cracked ribs and bruising. He said Gee left the scene, abandoning her car and did not check on the victim in the other car.
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She was arrested later in July 2016 after being stopped at an RBT.
She was taken into custody and also charged with having drug paraphernalia.
Her lawyer said the 22-year-old knew she wasn’t meant to drive but had been encouraged by her partner at the time to drive him so he could collect his car.
He said the partner had told her to ‘just run, just go’ after the accident so she did.
He said she accepts that she didn’t check on the driver and she had panicked.
Gee received a broken nose in the accident.
He sought fines and said the incidents were not drug-related.
Magistrate Adam Hills-Wright questioned if Gee was affected by drugs.
“Well maybe not directly,” he said.
“Just looking at her record she was driving without a licence, has drug paraphernalia in her possession – is there not some kind of a link?”
The prosecutor agreed with a fine but said it must be hefty.
“She wasn’t at fault but if you use a vehicle, you have a certain responsibility to stop at an accident where someone has been left vulnerable,” he said.
“It’s a moral obligation.
“The accused must be sentenced as to give her cause to realise she is to stop in the future.”
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Magistrate Hills-Wright said Gee should not have been on the road in the first place.
“Over and above you were driving unlicensed, had false plates and an unregistered car,” he said.
To reflect the seriousness of failing to stop, Gee was fined $4300, must pay the half annual licence fee for her unregistered car of $120.17 and was disqualified from driving for 18 months.