1 month ago
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The party's over for our international guests, with New South Wales authorities establishing a new taskforce to stop the fraudulent practice of nominating 'ghost drivers' to avoid fines and demerits.
The New South Wales Government is partnering with the Australian Border Force to put an end to international licence holders skirting the law.
Officials allege many foreign drivers have been fraudulently nominating other drivers to avoid demerit points and fines.
In a statewide crackdown to close the loophole, the government has established the Demerit Point Integrity Taskforce – which includes representatives from NSW Police, Revenue NSW, and Transport for NSW.
In cases where a foreign national has been nominated as the driver, the Demerit Point Taskforce will check passport and border records to establish whether the person was in the country at the time of the offence.
French nationals have been called out as repeat offenders, with Transport for NSW claiming some individuals have accrued more than 1000 demerit points.
Those applying for a driver's licence in New South Wales using a French licence and documentation will now be scrutinised by the department's Licence Integrity & Security team.
According to authorities, one individual was responsible for amassing more than 1500 demerit points, while two others were found to have racked up more than 500 demerits each.
So far, the Demerit Point Taskforce has suspended the licence of more than 50 repeat offenders.
Of those, 30 were French nationals who together collected more than 2000 demerit points – with the individuals all linked to a single address in the Sydney suburb of Rosebery.
In New South Wales, Leaner and Provisional P1 drivers can collect four demerit points before losing their licence. Provisional P2 licence holders have a limit of seven points, while full licence holders can receive 13 before receiving a suspension.
The maximum an individual can receive is 14 demerit points, but only for professional drivers with a NSW licence.
A review conducted by officials found as many as 40,000 drivers nominated for offences were unknown to Australian authorities – with no record of these 'ghost drivers' arriving into the country – with evidence their details were likely to have been taken from the dark web.
In a 20-month period between May 2022 and January 2022, Revenue NSW found 125,000 offences – equalling 256,000 demerit points – had been issued to international drivers.
From 1 March 2025, those staying in New South Wales on a long-term temporary visa – who arrived before 1 July 2023 – will be required to get a NSW driver's licence.
Ben Zachariah is an experienced writer and motoring journalist from Melbourne, having worked in the automotive industry for more than two decades. Ben began writing professionally more than 15 years ago and was previously an interstate truck driver. He completed his MBA in Finance in early 2021 and is considered an expert on classic car investment.
