Toll dodging mum has vast majority of $342k debt wiped out

A serial toll evader who racked up more than $340,000 in fines has avoided jail and had all but $16,000 of her debts wiped out.

Melbourne woman Isabelle Weir appeared at the Dandenong Magistrates' Court yesterday in relation to 1196 infringement warrants and 148 others charges accrued over a five-year period, The Herald Sun reports.

The 27-year-old single mother could have been jailed for six-and-a-half-years but Magistrate Pauline Spencer dismissed most of the fines and ordered Weir to pay back only $16,000, at a rate of $50 a month for 26 years.

Magistrate Spencer said jailing Weir would have had a "catastrophic impact" on her autistic child.

Between July 2008 and December 2013 Weir accumulated $342,050 fines, mostly for unpaid road tolls.

Weir's lawyer told the court she was an unemployed single mother of four who suffered from borderline personality disorder, had a history of alcohol abuse and was a carer for her autistic son.

The magistrate said Weir's drug addiction, mental health and financial disadvantage meant she was unable to pay the amount of fines she had accrued.

Source: Herald Sun

Author: Martin Zavan, Approving editor: Nick Pearson