Police ordered to pay $47k after losing appeal over door truck traffic stop at Narrandera

About 11am on March 7, 2022, police pulled over a B-double on the Sturt Highway at Gillenbah, just south of Narrandera.

The truck was carrying doors from Perth to Sydney, but the load had moved in transit and was bulging through the curtains of the trailer, which appeared to be leaning towards the nearside of the vehicle.

On measuring the load, police found it to be in serious breach as it was protruding 75cm over the edge of the trailer.

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At the time the truck was manned by two drivers employed by Queensland-based New Maja Transport Pty Ltd.

The drivers produced a load manifest that displayed the logo of Victorian-based transport company Mainfreight on the top left corner of the document, which the police photographed.

The drivers had taken over driving the truck at a roadhouse in Mundrabilla, WA and the drivers informed police that the truck had been loaded by Mainfreight.

In July 2022, Mainfreight representatives appeared in Narrandera Local Court on two charges of driving or permitting a person to drive a vehicle that does not comply with loading requirements (severe).

As a fine-only offence, police were not required to submit a brief of evidence and refused to do so.

But solicitors for Mainfreight issued a subpoena for the police evidence.

In August 2022 they revealed that evidence, which amounted to 42 photographs and included one of the load manifest.

The matter was ultimately listed for hearing before Magistrate Robert Rabbidge in Wagga Local Court in November 2022. However, two days prior to that, police informed Mainfreight's solicitors they intended to withdraw the charges.

At that November hearing, the charges were dismissed and withdrawn.

The magistrate found there was no evidence to satisfy the charges and found there had been a significant failure by police prosecutors to thoroughly look into how to prove their case to the criminal standard.

The magistrate accepted a submission by Mainfreight there was no evidence it had any knowledge whatsoever it knew who would be driving the truck at Gillenbah that day and in light of that, he found the transport company could not have permitted the offence to occur.

Magistrate Rabbidge accepted a compensation request by Mainfreight and ordered police to pay $85,968 in legal costs to the company despite police arguments this figure was "manifestly excessive".

Police appealed that decision, which was heard by Judge Andrew Scotting in the District Court this week.

Judge Scotting said the magistrate made multiple errors in his ruling and found the decision ordered police to repay an amount which was not supported by the evidence.

The judge further found police didn't have to show that Mainfreight had actual knowledge that the truck was being driven on a particular road by a particular person as the offences were strictly indictable.

He found Mainfreight was required to have a system in place which would ensure it complied with heavy vehicle national law.

Judge Scotting said assuming Mainfreight was acting as "matchmaker" between Hume Doors and Timber and Maja Tranpsort Pty Ltd, it was required to have a system in place to ensure the parties complied with the law.

But despite this, the judge found Mainfreight was entitled to legal costs as police "unreasonably failed to investigate the offences and gather any admissible evidence of Mainfreight's involvement with the load, or in the loading of the truck at Carlisle [in Western Australia] or its journey thereafter".

The court heard the maximum fine for each of the offences was $10,000 and after an assessment, Judge Scotting revised the amount police needed to pay Mainfreight to $47,391.

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