Melbourne tradie hit with three fines for an Audi he doesn’t own as he blames Optus data breach
How fed up Tradie has been hit with $1200 in traffic tickets for a black Audi he doesn’t even own after a mistake by his phone company
- Chris Lanting fined $1200 for offenses says he didn’t do
- Black Audi Caught Speeding, Running A Red Light That Ain’t Yours
- Says the driver imposed fines with his information from the Optus violation
A tradie has received three traffic tickets for a car that is not his and believes that the reason is a telecommunications data leak.
Chris Lanting became suspicious when he received $1,200 in tickets in the mail, one for speeding and two for running a stoplight.
But the crimes had been committed by a driver in a black Audi, a car he does not own and says he has never been close to.
The Melbourne man believes a stranger passed him his tickets as a result of his details being leaked in the Optus data breach.
speaking to a current affairLanting said he doesn’t know the man who nominated him as the driver responsible for all three cases.
‘I don’t know this person. I had never heard the name before,” she said.
The Audi was first caught speeding on January 3 at around 8:30pm on Western Ring Road and North and Boundary Road in Laverton, about an hour from the tradie’s home.
Eight hours later, the vehicle was photographed running a red light at around 4am at City Road and Montague Street in South Melbourne.
The third offense was on January 11, when the Audi ran another red light in Collingwood when Mr. Lanting and his family were on holiday.
The black Audi (pictured) was pulled over with a speeding ticket and two red light violations
Lanting insists he was not anywhere near where the crimes took place, saying he has photos to prove he was out from January 2-12 in north-east Victoria.
“They would have put me asleep in the caravan,” he added.
In Victoria, infringement notices can be passed on to someone else if the original recipient provides someone else’s name, address and license number.
In October last year, Lanting was one of 11 million Australians affected by the Optus data breach, which he believes is how the mystery Audi driver obtained his information.
“I was part of the breach and the details that were hacked,” Lanting said.
He added that he can’t be sure if the telco’s trick was how the driver got his data, but he wanted to share his story so others are aware of the risks.
The tradie believes that the mystery driver may have obtained his information as a result of the Optus data breach last year (pictured, file image)
Nominating someone else to bear the brunt of a ticket is illegal, said attorney Justin Lawrence of Henderson and Ball Lawyers.
“If you fill out the form and falsely nominate someone other than the driver, you can lose your license and be fined up to $9000.”
“It’s a direct offense against highway law,” Lawrence added.
The lawyer said that the driver’s nomination form must be changed to avoid these situations.
“As a driver, you can nominate whoever you want in your place for a ticket,” he said.
“You can say it’s them, with their address, sign and that’s it, and the person often won’t know it was them.”
The police have advised Mr. Lanting to make a legal statement to begin the process of clearing his name.