logo
Driver's bizarre number plate prompts $933 fine warning: 'Not legal'

Driver's bizarre number plate prompts $933 fine warning: 'Not legal'

Yahoo25-03-2025

Most Aussie drivers do their best to avoid being pulled over, but some choices on the road are bound to attract the wrong kind of attention. That was the case in Adelaide this week when a Toyota driver was spotted with a bold, customised number plate simply reading "PRIVATE," above smaller text "Special Trust Security."
A keen-eyed local photographed the strange-looking plates and posted images online, asking "what the F are these? Surely [they're] not legal?".
People from all around the country weighed in, with one person's response in particular generating a lot of traction. "They're plates which will guarantee SAPOL will pull them over at their first opportunity," they wrote. Another suggested the plates belong to a member of a so-called "sovereign citizen" movement — a growing group of fringe conspiracists, who believe laws don't apply to them and can be opted out of.
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, a spokesman for SAPOL confirmed the plates in question are highly illegal, and in fact, can attract an on-the-spot fine of $933. "These plates appear fake and are not plates that have been issued by SA Department for Infrastructure and Transport," he told Yahoo.
People online criticised the driver's decision to boldly break the law. "It's the best way to show off your dreadful understanding [of the law] to an already disinterested person," one person said. "You found a sovereign citizen in the wild," another commented. "Those are the 'please pull me over plates', otherwise known as sovereign citizen plates," joked a third.
It's not the first time the scenario has emerged on Australian roads. A photo, captured in Queensland in 2023, earlier showed the rear of a Holden with a plate that features the text "Private Property Non-Commercial, Living Woman, Terra Australia Incognito", along with an incorrect claim that removing the plate "incurs a $50,000 fine".
Bizarrely, it also contained a legitimate registration number in extremely small text. Some followers of the sovereign citizen movement can actually pose a serious threat. In 2010, a father-son team in the US murdered two police officers with an assault rifle after being pulled over.
In NSW in recent times, a police officer was forced to smash a car window after a "sovereign citizen" refused to get out of her vehicle and claimed she was not in the officer's jurisdiction.
Number plate with 'naughty' hidden message spotted
Dodgy detail in Aussie's number plate could attract $900 fine
Aussies lose it over motorist's 'sovereign citizen' licence plate
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Dr Ben Rich, co-director of Curtin University's Curtin Extremism Research Network (CERN), said police and intelligence agencies around the nation are concerned about the "sovereign citizen" movement. "The injection of increasingly extremist American ideas reflecting that country's own internal dysfunctions has caused the overall movement to take a darker turn over the past decade," Dr Rich earlier said.
"The Covid-19 lockdowns were a real catalyst for Sov-Cit political mobilisation in Australia, and we saw many of them turning out in anti-lockdown and anti-government protests in unprecedented numbers with their distinctive iconography."
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trump vows to 'HIT' any protester who spits on police. He pardoned those who did far worse on Jan. 6

timean hour ago

Trump vows to 'HIT' any protester who spits on police. He pardoned those who did far worse on Jan. 6

In one of his first acts of his second term as president, Donald Trump pardoned hundreds of people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to keep him in office, including those who beat police officers. On Monday, Trump posted a warning on social media to those demonstrating in Los Angeles against his immigration crackdown and confronting police and members of the National Guard he had deployed: 'IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT, and I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before. Such disrespect will not be tolerated!' The discrepancy of Trump's response to the two disturbances — pardoning rioters who beat police on Jan. 6, which he called 'a beautiful day,' while condemning violence against law enforcement in Los Angeles — illustrates how the president expects his enemies to be held to different standards than his supporters. 'Trump's behavior makes clear that he only values the rule of law and the people who enforce it when it's to his political advantage,' said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College. Trump pardoned more than 1,000 people who tried to halt the transfer of power on that day in 2021, when about 140 officers were injured. The former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, called it 'likely the largest single day mass assault of law enforcement ' in American history. Trump's pardon covered people convicted of attacking police with flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch. Many of the assaults were captured on surveillance or body camera footage that showed rioters engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police as officers desperately fought to beat back the angry crowd. While some who were pardoned were convicted of nonviolent crimes, Trump pardoned at least 276 defendants who were convicted of assault charges, according to an Associated Press review of court records. Nearly 300 others had their pending charges dismissed as a result of Trump's sweeping act of clemency. Roughly 180 of the defendants were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement or obstructing officers during a civil disorder. 'They were extremely violent, and they have been treated as if their crimes were nothing, and now the president is trying to use the perception of violence by some protesters as an excuse to crack some heads,' said Mike Romano, who was a deputy chief of the section of the U.S. Attorney's office that prosecuted those involved in the Capitol siege. A White House spokesman, Harrison Fields, defended the president's response: 'President Trump was elected to secure the border, equip federal officials with the tools to execute this plan, and restore law and order.' Trump has long planned to use civil unrest as an opportunity to invoke broad presidential powers, and he seemed poised to do just that on Monday as he activated a battalion of U.S. Marines to support the presence of the National Guard. He mobilized the Guard on Saturday over the opposition of California's governor, Gavin Newsom, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats. The Guard was last sent to Los Angeles by a president during the Rodney King riots in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush invoked the Insurrection Act. Those riots were significantly more violent and widespread than the current protests in Los Angeles, which were largely confined to a stretch of downtown, a relatively small patch in a city of 469 square miles and nearly 4 million people. The current demonstrations were sparked by a confrontation Saturday in the city of Paramount, southeast of downtown Los Angeles, where federal agents were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office. California officials, who are largely Democrats, argued that Trump is trying to create more chaos to expand his power. Newsom, whom Trump suggested should be arrested, called the president's acts 'authoritarian.' But even Rick Caruso, a prominent Los Angeles Republican and former mayoral candidate, posted on the social media site X that the president should not have called in the National Guard. Protests escalated after the Guard arrived, with demonstrators blockading a downtown freeway. Some some set multiple self-driving cars on fire and pelted Los Angeles police with debris and fireworks. Romano said he worried that Trump's double standard on how demonstrators should treat law enforcement will weaken the position of police in American society. He recalled that, during the Capitol attack, many rioters thought police should let them into the building because they had supported law enforcement's crackdown on anti-police demonstrations after George Floyd was murdered in 2020. That sort of 'transactional' approach Trump advocates is toxic, Romano said. 'We need to expect law enforcement are doing their jobs properly,' he said. Believing they just cater to the president 'is going to undermine public trust in law enforcement.'

Spirit Airlines plane passenger calls in fake bomb threat after missing flight: Officials

time2 hours ago

Spirit Airlines plane passenger calls in fake bomb threat after missing flight: Officials

A Michigan man has been arrested after missing his flight to Los Angeles and calling in a fake bomb threat after being made to book another flight, officials said. The incident took place last Thursday at approximately 6:25 a.m. at Detroit Metropolitan Airport when an individual, later identified as 23-year-old John Charles Robinson of Monore, Michigan, 'used a cell phone to call into Spirit Airlines and conveyed false information about a bomb threat to Flight 2145 departing from Detroit Metro bound for Los Angeles,' according to a statement from United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. from the Eastern District of Michigan United States Attorney's Office. 'During the call, Robinson stated in part, 'I was calling about 2145… because I have information about that flight,' and 'there's gonna be someone who's gonna try to blow up the airport,' and 'there's gonna be someone that's gonna try to blow up that flight, 2145,'' according to the affidavit. 'After giving a description of an individual, he then stated: 'they're going to be carrying a bomb through the TSA,' and 'they're still threatening to do it, they're still attempted to do it, they said it's not going to be able to be detected. Please don't let that flight board.'' The flight was immediately canceled, officials said and the flight's passengers and crew were deplaned for safety precautions. 'Bomb sniffing dogs and FBI agents were deployed to sweep the airplane, officials said. 'No bomb or explosives were found.' Federal agents investigating the bomb threat soon learned that Robinson was booked on Flight 2145 but missed the flight and was told at the gate that he needed to rebook. 'FBI agents subsequently arrested Robinson when he returned to the airport to depart on another flight bound for Los Angeles,' officials said. After taking Robinson into custody, authorities played back the phone call that was made for him. "Robinson listened to the above-mentioned recording and confirmed he was the one that made the recorded phone call to Spirit Airlines," officials said. "Robinson also stated that the phone number that called the bomb threat in to Spirit Airlines was his phone number (and had been for approximately 6 years), that the target cellular device was his device, and he gave written consent for a search of his device." Robinson was subsequently charged with two charges. The first being use of a cellphone to threaten/maliciously convey false information concerning an attempt or alleged attempt to damage/destroy an airplane by means of an explosive and the second being false information and hoaxes. 'No American wants to hear the words 'bomb' and 'airplane' in the same sentence. Making this kind of threat undermines our collective sense of security and wastes valuable law enforcement resources,' said U.S. Attorney Gorgon. 'Anyone who threatens to bomb an aircraft and endanger public safety will be swiftly investigated and brought to justice,' said Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. 'The alleged bomb threat prompted a coordinated response by our FBI Detroit Joint Terrorism Task Force, in partnership with the Wayne County Airport Authority Police Department and the U.S. Federal Air Marshal Service, leading to the arrest of John Robinson as he attempted to board another flight at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. We remain committed to protecting the public and confronting those who seek to spread fear in our communities.' Robinson appeared in federal court in Detroit on Friday afternoon and was released on a $10,00 bond, according to court documents. His next court appearance will be June 27 for a preliminary examination.

Road rule warning to Aussies after driver cops $1,775 fine, 22 demerit points in one go
Road rule warning to Aussies after driver cops $1,775 fine, 22 demerit points in one go

Yahoo

time3 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Road rule warning to Aussies after driver cops $1,775 fine, 22 demerit points in one go

Drivers are being reminded of their responsibility to follow the myriad rules of the road after one L-plater copped $1,775 in fines and a whopping 22 demerit points in one hit this past weekend. NSW Traffic and Highway Patrol are holding the driver of a silver Saab convertible up as an example of what not to do after the male, who held a NSW Learner's class C licence, was caught doing 129km/h on the Hume Highway on Sunday. It was the car's speed in the 110km/h zone near Penrose which initially alerted officers in Mittagong Highway Patrol to the driver's wrongdoing, but the offences didn't stop there. The learner licence holder, who was not displaying yellow L plates on the front or the rear of the car, can only do a maximum speed of 90km/h, making his speed actually 39km over the limit. After being stopped at 4.15 pm, officers then spotted a mobile phone positioned near the steering wheel playing a music video on YouTube. "When questioned about this, the male swiped the screen to a map app and replied 'no, I'm not using it, just looking at the map'," officers said of the interaction. It is illegal for learner and provisional licence holders in NSW to use a phone for "any purpose", even for directions. 😳 Alarming breach of well-known road rule as 8,500 Aussies cop $395 fine 🐉 New Aussie road markings aimed at giving drivers a 'sense of warning' 🛴 Aussies warned over $1,161 fine after parents' shocking e-scooter act on city road When police questioned the female passenger about her role as a supervisor, she replied, "I was asleep," officers said. The offences resulted in numerous fines and demerit points. They included: Exceeding speed over 30km/h, $1045 fine and five demerit points Learner using a mobile phone, $410 fine and five demerit points Not displaying L plates, $320 fine and two demerit points. Because it was a long weekend and double demerit points were in place, the male driver accumulated a whopping 22 demerit points. Because learner drivers can only accumulate a maximum of four demerit points, he was automatically suspended from driving with a pending extension from NSW Transport. The female passenger also copped a penalty infringement for failing to supervise. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store