Traffic offences in NSW
Speeding and speed camera offences
Most speeding notices are paid within a week of arriving, and a good many of them should not have been. Paying is an admission, it puts the demerit points on your record, and for some offences it is the very thing that triggers the suspension.
Do not pay it yet, and do not wait either
Once you pay, the offence is on your traffic record and the points are applied. Once the reminder notice due date passes, your right to take the matter to court as of right is gone. There is a window between those two dates and it is the only room you have. Send us the notice. Call 0407 171 626 (Alicia) or 0407 534 594 (Michelle).
Catron Simmons Lawyers are traffic lawyers acting for drivers in Local Courts across New South Wales, from Sydney and the Hills District to the regions.
Speeding is an offence against rule 20 of the Road Rules 2014. It is a strict liability offence, so the prosecution does not have to prove that you meant to speed or knew you were speeding. What it does have to prove is that the vehicle exceeded the limit, that the limit was what it says it was, and that the measurement is one the court can rely on. Each of those is capable of being tested.
The penalty you are facing turns on three things: how far over the limit you were, whether you were in a school zone, and what licence you hold. A learner or P1 driver caught at nine kilometres per hour over is suspended. An unrestricted driver at the same speed loses one demerit point and $149. Same offence, entirely different consequence.
On this page
Where the number came from
How your speed was measured
The detection method decides what evidence exists, what the prosecution has to produce, and whether there is anything worth arguing about. It is the first question we ask.
Fixed and mobile speed cameras
Detected by an approved camera device and processed by Revenue NSW. The image records the vehicle rather than the driver, which is why the notice goes to the registered operator and why nomination matters. Transport for NSW tests and certifies these devices, and the certification is evidence the prosecution has to be able to produce.
Average speed detection zones
Two cameras a known distance apart, with the offence proved by the time taken between them rather than a reading at a point. Long confined to heavy vehicles, average speed detection now appears in the light vehicle offence schedule as well. The arithmetic is unforgiving, but so is the requirement that both detections be properly matched to the same vehicle.
Radar and LIDAR
Highway patrol equipment operated by a trained officer. There are prescribed requirements about testing, calibration and the manner of use, and the officer’s notes and the device’s test records are the place to look. A device that has not been checked in accordance with the requirements is not the same evidence as one that has.
Estimated speed
A visual estimate by an officer with no device at all, sometimes supported by speedometer following. It is admissible and it is the weakest of the four. Distance, angle, duration of observation, traffic conditions and the officer’s training all matter, and none of it is in the fact sheet you were handed.
Radar detectors and jammers
Worth saying plainly because the penalty surprises people. Driving a vehicle fitted with a speed measuring evasion article carries a fine of $2,204 and nine demerit points, which takes an unrestricted driver most of the way to a suspension in a single notice. Selling, buying or possessing one in a vehicle attracts the same fine.
The numbers
Fines and demerit points
These are the penalty notice amounts for a light vehicle, as published by Transport for NSW and current from 1 July 2025. Fines are indexed most years, so check the Transport for NSW offence search against your notice. Demerit points do not change with indexation.
| Over the limit | Fine | Demerit points, unrestricted | Demerit points, learner and provisional |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 km/h and under | $149 | 1 | 4 |
| More than 10 km/h | $345 | 3 | 4 |
| More than 20 km/h | $592 | 4 | 4 |
| More than 30 km/h | $1,133 | 5 | 5 |
| More than 45 km/h | $3,054 | 6 | 6 |
| Over the limit | Fine | Demerit points, unrestricted | Demerit points, learner and provisional |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 km/h and under | $246 | 2 | 5 |
| More than 10 km/h | $443 | 4 | 5 |
| More than 20 km/h | $738 | 5 | 5 |
| More than 30 km/h | $1,429 | 6 | 6 |
| More than 45 km/h | $3,242 | 7 | 7 |
What a court can impose
If the matter goes to court and you are convicted, the penalty notice amount is not the ceiling. Rule 10-2 of the Road Rules 2014 sets a maximum fine of $2,200 for a light vehicle for any speeding offence, rising to $3,300 for exceeding the limit by more than 45 km/h. Court costs and the prosecutor’s professional costs sit on top of that, and both are set by legislation rather than by the magistrate’s discretion.
| Offence | Maximum fine | Disqualification |
|---|---|---|
| Not more than 30 km/h over | $2,200 | At the court’s discretion |
| More than 30 km/h but not more than 45 km/h over | $2,200 | 3 months minimum |
| More than 45 km/h over | $3,300 | 6 months minimum |
Demerit points remain on your record for three years from the date of the offence. The offence itself stays on your traffic record indefinitely, which is a separate thing and matters when a magistrate is deciding whether to be lenient on the next one.
Your licence
When speeding costs you your licence
There are three separate routes from a speeding offence to a suspension, and they operate independently of each other. People are regularly surprised to receive a second notice after they have already served the first suspension.
1. The speeding suspension itself
Exceeding the limit by more than 30 km/h attracts a three month suspension. More than 45 km/h attracts six months. If you were stopped by police at more than 45 km/h over, or you hold a learner or provisional licence and were stopped at more than 30 km/h over, the officer can suspend you at the roadside on the spot and take your licence with them. Police can also confiscate your number plates or impound the vehicle.
If a camera detected you, no one takes your licence at the roadside. Transport for NSW sends the suspension notice once you pay the fine, or once the time to take the matter to court has lapsed without you doing anything. That is worth reading twice. On a serious speeding offence, paying the fine is the act that produces the suspension.
2. The demerit point suspension
The points from the same offence go on your record as well, and they are not absorbed by the speeding suspension. If they take you to or over your threshold, Transport for NSW issues a separate suspension notice, and that period begins after the speeding suspension ends. Two notices, two periods, one offence.
3. Learner and provisional drivers
- Any speeding offence at all carries at least four demerit points for a learner, P1 or P2 driver. Four points is the entire learner and P1 allowance, so a single offence produces a three month suspension.
- P2 drivers have a seven point threshold, so a first minor offence usually does not suspend them, but a second one will.
- A P2 driver caught at 30 km/h or more over the limit must stay on the P2 licence for an extra six months, every time, on top of any suspension.
- Learners are limited to 90 km/h, P1 drivers to 90 km/h and P2 drivers to 100 km/h regardless of the posted limit, and exceeding the special limit is itself a speeding offence.
Appealing the suspension
A suspension imposed by Transport for NSW for speeding can be appealed to the Local Court within 28 days, and filing the appeal pauses the suspension so you keep driving until it is heard. The question for the court is whether you are a fit and proper person to hold a licence. A police roadside suspension can also be appealed, but it is not paused by filing, and there the test is exceptional circumstances, which needing your licence for work, study or the school run does not meet. See licence suspension appeals for how each works.
There is no work licence in NSW
New South Wales has no work licence, restricted licence or hardship licence. If you are suspended you cannot drive at all, for any purpose. That is why what you do with the notice in the first fortnight matters more than anything you can do later.
Timing and place
Double demerits and school zones
Double demerit periods
On declared long weekends and holiday periods the demerit points for speeding are doubled. The fine is not. That sounds like the lesser half of the penalty until you work it out: an unrestricted driver at 25 km/h over the limit during a double demerit period picks up eight points from one offence, which is well over half the threshold. A P2 driver is suspended on the spot by the arithmetic.
Double demerits apply to speeding, seatbelt, child restraint, motorcycle helmet and mobile phone offences. They do not apply to red light offences.
School zones
School zones operate 8.00am to 9.30am and 2.30pm to 4.00pm on gazetted school days, including staff development days when there are no students on site. Fixed cameras in school zones run around the clock but only apply the reduced limit during those hours.
The school zone uplift is not a small loading. At 10 km/h and under, an unrestricted driver goes from one point to two and from $149 to $246. At more than 10 km/h over, from three points to four. In a double demerit period, a school zone offence at more than 10 km/h over costs an unrestricted driver eight points, and a learner or P1 driver was suspended the moment the notice issued.
Signage is the most common ground of genuine complaint, and it is a proper ground. If the zone was not signposted in accordance with the requirements, or a flashing light unit was not operating when it should have been, that goes to whether the reduced limit applied at all.
Decide before the due date
Your four options
Every speeding penalty notice presents the same four choices. Which one is right depends on your record, your licence type, how close the points take you to the threshold, and how good the evidence is. It is a decision worth ten minutes of advice before you make it.
Pay it
Quick, final and an admission. The offence goes on your traffic record, the demerit points are applied, and on a serious speeding offence the payment triggers the suspension notice. Right for a lot of minor offences and wrong for most of the ones people call us about.
Request a review
Revenue NSW can withdraw a notice and, where appropriate, replace it with an official caution, which carries no fine and no demerit points. Recognised grounds include that the notice was issued contrary to law or in error, mistaken identity, and exceptional circumstances. A review costs nothing and does not close off a court election if it fails.
Nominate the driver
If someone else was driving, the registered operator can nominate them by statutory declaration and the notice transfers. Do it properly and on time. Failing to supply the driver’s name and address carries a fine of $844 for an individual and $1,784 for a company, rising to $4,783 for a company on a second offence, and falsely naming someone is a separate offence again.
Elect to go to court
The only route to no demerit points where you accept you were speeding. It is also the only route to a fine larger than the one on the notice. Once Revenue NSW accepts the election you cannot withdraw it.
The deadline that actually matters
Both the review and the court election are made through Revenue NSW, and both need to be in before the due date on your fine reminder notice. After that date you have to establish hindrance, meaning you must prove with documents that something prevented you from dealing with the fine in time. Medical and travel records will sometimes do it. Not having opened the mail will not.
Court elections
What happens if you go to court
A court election is not an appeal and it is not a review. It converts an administrative fine into a criminal proceeding, with a plea, a magistrate and the possibility of a conviction. Handled well it is the best tool available. Handled casually it is expensive.
You apply to Revenue NSW
Online or by form, before the reminder notice due date. Assessment takes up to six weeks and the fine is on hold in the meantime.
The fine and the points are reversed
If the election is accepted, Revenue NSW refunds anything already paid and reverses any demerit points already applied to your licence. They come back only if you are convicted.
A court attendance notice issues
Listed at the court closest to where the offence happened, which is frequently nowhere near where you live. You can apply to move it, and there is no guarantee the court will agree.
You enter a plea
Guilty matters are usually dealt with the same day. Not guilty matters are adjourned for hearing, and the issuing authority presents its evidence and may call the officer who detected you.
The three outcomes
| Outcome | Fine | Demerit points | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guilty, conviction recorded | Court penalty plus court costs and the prosecutor’s costs | Applied | Conviction recorded |
| Guilty, no conviction recorded | No penalty, but court costs and possibly professional costs still payable | Not applied | Offence appears on your driving record |
| Not guilty | Nothing | Not applied | Nothing |
The point of the middle row
An order under section 10 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999, whether a dismissal or a conditional release order without conviction, means there is no conviction, and demerit points are recorded only on conviction or on payment of the notice. So the driver who is three points from a suspension and gets a section 10 keeps their licence outright. That is the single reason most speeding matters are worth taking to court, and it is why the plea in mitigation is where the work goes.
It is discretionary and it is not given for the asking. What moves a magistrate is a clean or near clean record, a genuine explanation that does not shade into excuse, evidence of what the licence is used for, and something showing insight rather than asserting it. A completed Traffic Offender Intervention Program certificate does real work on driving matters. Make sure the provider is on the Local Court’s registered list.
The written notice of pleading is a false economy
You can plead guilty in writing and stay home. On a written plea the magistrate has the police fact sheet and your traffic record and nothing else: no explanation, no references, no course certificate, nothing about what losing the licence would mean. Penalties on written pleas are routinely heavier for exactly that reason. If you cannot attend, we can appear for you.
Contesting it
Challenging the notice
Most speeding matters are not defended, and they should not be. Some are, and the grounds are more often technical than factual.
- The device. Speed measuring devices must be approved, and there are prescribed requirements about testing, sealing and the manner of use. Where those requirements have not been met, the evidentiary shortcuts the prosecution relies on may not be available to it.
- The operator. Radar and LIDAR require a trained operator following a set procedure. Angle, target acquisition, tracking history and the officer’s own testing at the start and end of the shift are all fair territory.
- Identity. Camera images photograph the vehicle, not the driver. If you were not driving, the answer is a nomination rather than a defence, and it has to be made properly.
- The speed limit. Whether the limit you are alleged to have exceeded actually applied to that length of road at that time. School zone signage and flashing light operation come up regularly, and so do temporary roadwork limits after the works have finished.
- The vehicle. Plate misreads, stolen vehicles, and vehicles sold before the offence date. The registration record is not proof of who owned the car on the day.
- Necessity or duress. Rare, closely scrutinised, and occasionally right. A genuine medical emergency has succeeded.
Even where the offence cannot be contested, the fact sheet is worth reading closely. The manner of driving, the traffic conditions and the distance travelled all bear on sentence, and the first draft of a fact sheet routinely puts them higher than the evidence supports.
The other camera
Red light camera offences
Red light cameras are a different offence from speeding and are dealt with under rule 59 of the Road Rules 2014. Proceeding through a red traffic light carries a fine of $562 and three demerit points, rising to $704 and four points in a school zone. Double demerits do not apply.
Red light speed cameras do both jobs at one intersection, and a single pass can generate two separate notices for two separate offences. Each has to be dealt with on its own terms, and the demerit points add together.
The camera takes two images, one at the stop line and one further into the intersection, to establish that the vehicle proceeded rather than stopped. Where a driver was already committed to the intersection when the light changed, or was moving to make way for an emergency vehicle, the images are worth obtaining before anything is paid. You can request the images through Revenue NSW.
For the fines process itself, including reviews, overdue notices, payment plans and Work and Development Orders, see our page on camera detected offences.
Why Catron Simmons
Why drivers choose us
We tell you when not to fight it
Plenty of speeding notices should simply be paid, and we will say so. What we will not do is take a matter to court that costs more in court costs than the fine and delivers the same result.
We know how the detection works
With a background in prosecution and in highway patrol, we know how these devices are operated, tested and recorded, and what the brief should contain before anyone enters a plea.
Wherever your matter is listed
Court elections are heard where the offence happened, often a long way from home. We appear in Local Courts across New South Wales, so you are not left finding a second lawyer in another town.
You deal with a principal
We are a boutique firm. You talk to the solicitor who will appear for you, not a call centre, and we are contactable outside business hours.
Common questions
Speeding offences: your questions answered
Will I lose demerit points if I go to court?
Not while the matter is pending. When Revenue NSW accepts a court election it reverses any points already applied. They are applied only if the court convicts you. If the court deals with the matter by a section 10 dismissal or a conditional release order without conviction, no demerit points are recorded at all, although the offence still appears on your driving record.
Is there a tolerance on speed cameras?
There is no published tolerance and none you can rely on. Approved devices are required to measure within a specified accuracy, and any allowance made for that is a matter for the operating authority rather than a legal entitlement. Planning your driving around an assumed few kilometres per hour of grace is how people end up in the next penalty band.
I was not the driver. What do I do?
Nominate the person who was, by statutory declaration, within the time stated on the notice. The notice then transfers to them. This is not optional: failing to supply the driver’s name and address is itself an offence carrying $844 for an individual and $1,784 for a company. Naming someone who was not driving is a further offence and is prosecuted.
Can I be suspended and lose demerit points for the same offence?
Yes, and it catches people out. On a serious speeding offence you receive a suspension for the speed itself, and the demerit points go on your record separately. If those points take you over your threshold you receive a second suspension notice, and the demerit suspension starts after the speeding suspension ends.
How much is a speeding fine in a school zone?
More than double at the lower end. For a light vehicle at 10 km/h and under, $246 and two demerit points instead of $149 and one. At more than 10 km/h over, $443 and four points. At more than 45 km/h over, $3,242 and seven points. School zones operate 8.00am to 9.30am and 2.30pm to 4.00pm on school days, including staff development days.
What happens if I miss the deadline to go to court?
You can still apply, but you have to establish hindrance, meaning you must show with supporting documents that you were prevented from dealing with the fine before the reminder notice due date. Medical or travel evidence will sometimes carry it. Without that evidence the application is refused and the fine stands.
Will a speeding conviction give me a criminal record?
A conviction for a speeding offence is recorded and can be disclosed on a criminal record check, which matters for professional registration, some employment and some travel. A section 10 dismissal or a conditional release order without conviction avoids that. It is one of the main reasons drivers who could afford the fine still come to court.
Do double demerits apply to red light cameras?
No. Double demerit periods apply to speeding, seatbelt, child restraint, helmet and mobile phone offences. A red light offence carries three demerit points whenever it happens. Note that a red light speed camera can produce a speeding notice as well, and that one does double.
Can I get the fine reduced if I cannot afford it?
Not by the court simply because it is unaffordable, though your means are relevant to what a magistrate imposes. Revenue NSW is the better path: payment plans, a Work and Development Order if you have a health condition or are experiencing hardship, and in some cases a fine reduction or write off. Sorting that out is a separate exercise from disputing whether you committed the offence.
Keep reading
Related traffic law pages
Camera detected offences →
Infringement notices and fines →
Licence suspension appeals →
Demerit points, suspension and refusal →
Good behaviour licences →
P1, P2 and learner suspensions →
Reckless and dangerous driving →
Police pursuit →
Negligent driving →
Driver licence offences →
Get started
Send us the notice before you pay it.
Email us the penalty notice or court attendance notice and tell us what licence you hold. We will tell you what the points do to your record, whether a review or a court election is the better move, what it would cost, and whether it is worth doing at all.