Excessive speed, drug and alcohol offences

Fines for excessive speed, drug and alcohol offences are different from other fines – they are more serious.

They may result in:

driver licence cancellation or suspension
a conviction.

A conviction will be recorded 28 days from the Infringement Notice issue date on your fine, unless you object. If you were not responsible for the offence, you should act before that date. If you don't act, the offence will appear on your criminal record.

Excessive speed

You will be issued with an excessive speeding fine if you are caught driving 25km/h or more above the speed limit or driving at 130km/h or more.

If you do not act within 28 days of the notice issue date, your driver licence will be suspended, or in some cases it will be cancelled. The length of the suspension will be determined by how serious your offence is (how far over the speed limit you drove).

If you weren't driving the vehicle at that time, you must tell us who was driving within 28 days to avoid your licence being suspended or cancelled.

Drink-driving

If you're caught driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) over the legal limit, you will be issued with a drink-driving fine. Depending on your BAC, Victoria Police may suspend your licence immediately.

Visit VicRoads to learn more about legal BAC levels.

If you don't take action to dispute the fine within 28 days of the notice issue date, a conviction will be recorded, and your driver licence will be suspended or, in some cases, cancelled.

Drug-driving

If you test positive to a proscribed (illicit) drug at a roadside drug test, you will be issued with a drug-driving fine.

If you don't take action to dispute the fine within 28 days of the notice issue date, a conviction will be recorded, and your driver licence will be suspended.

You can be issued a drug-driving penalty for:

testing positive to the presence of a proscribed (illicit) drug while driving
testing positive to the presence of a proscribed (illicit) drug while supervising a learner driver

If Victoria Police believes that you are driving while impaired by other drugs, they may undertake a preliminary assessment of physical factors, such as your behaviour, balance and coordination.

You may then be asked to undertake a blood test which will detect any substances that you have used. There is a separate charge for driving while impaired that also carries severe penalties.

Visit VicRoads to learn more about drug-driving penalties.

Disputing an excessive speed, drink or drug-driving fine

If you have been issued a fine for excessive speed, drink or drug-driving, and you want to object, you must act quickly.

You have 28 days to deal with your fine before your licence is suspended or cancelled.

To dispute your fine, you can have your matter heard in court.

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If you don't deal with your fine

When an Infringement Notice is issued by an enforcement agency, you must pay it by the due date or do something else about it.

If you do not pay it or do something about it, a Penalty Reminder Notice is issued for the fine and the cost of the fine will go up. You should pay the fine or contact the agency that issued the fine to talk about your options. Their contact number is on the notice you received.

If you still don't take action, a Notice of Final Demand is issued and the cost of the fine goes up again. You should pay this fine by the due date or contact us to discuss your options.

If you don't do anything, an Enforcement Warrant may be issued, and the Sheriff may become involved. Fines Victoria may also apply a driver or vehicle sanction against you.

Fines Victoria