If you decide to pay a fine, it is not the same as admitting you are guilty. However, when you pay a fine, the offence may be listed on your driving record or criminal history.

If it is a fine for a traffic offence, it may be listed on your driving record. For some offences where a criminal infringement notice (CIN) is issued, the offence may also appear on your criminal history. A 'criminal history' is a record of all offences and court appearances.

Getting demerit points

Many traffic offences also come with demerit points, for example, speeding offences or using your mobile phone while driving. The demerit points can be given to ​you when:

• you pay the fine
• the court finds you guilty of the offence, or
• the due date of the fine reminder notice has passed and you have not paid the fine or applied to have the fine heard in court.

If you want to know if an offence comes with demerit points, go to the Roads and Maritime Services​ website (RMS formerly RTA).

If you are not sure how many demerit points you have, you can check on the Service NSW Online Services website.

If you go over your limit of demerit points, your licence will be suspended.

For more information, see Demerit points - Licence suspensions.

If your licence has ​been suspended, depending on your circumstances you may be able to appeal the suspension of your licence, or apply for a good behaviour licence so that you can keep driving. For more information, see Licence suspensions.

Licence suspension

Your licence can be suspended in many different ways. RMS can suspend your driver's licence if you:

• get too many demerit points
• are caught by a speed camera doing more than 30km/hr over the speed limit.

If you repeatedly lose your licence for accumulation of demerit points, the RMS may ask you to:

• participate in a driver education course,
• undertake a driver knowledge test, or
• both.

If you hold an unrestricted licence, Transport for NSW (TfNSW) can ask that you participate in one or both of these programs if you lose your licence twice for accumulation of demerit points in a 5 year period. If you are a provisional licence holder, you may be asked to undertak these courses if you lose your licence twice for accumulation of demerit points during the whole provisional period.

If asked to attend a driver education course or to undertake a driver knowledge test, your licence will remain suspended until you complete the course, test, or both.

The police can also suspend your licence if:

• you are caught speeding more than 30km/hr over the speed limit and have a learner or provisional driver's licence
• you are caught speeding by more than 45 km/hr over the speed limit
• you are a learner driver without a qualified driver in the passenger seat beside you
• you commit a serious driving offence, such as drink driving, street racing and burn-out offences.

For more information, see Licence suspensions​.

Asking for a review

If you pay a fine, you can still ask Revenue NSW to review the fine.

If you paid a fine in full before a fine reminder notice was served, you can ask for a review up until 60 days after the date the penalty notice was served on you.

If you paid in full after a fine reminder notice was served, you can ask for a review by contacting Revenue NSW up until the due date on the fine reminder notice.

Apply to have your fine heard in court

If you pay a fine, you can still apply to have your fine heard in court to challenge the fine.

If you have paid a fine before you got a fine reminder notice, you can apply to have your fine heard in court any time up until 90 days after the date of the fine.

If you have paid a fine after receiving a fine reminder notice, you can apply to have your fine heard in court any time before the due date on the fine reminder notice.

If you have received an overdue fine, you can still apply to go to court however you will need to prove that you were prevented from paying or managing your fine before the due date. This is called hindrance. You will need to supply supporting evidence, such as medical or travel documents. 

When an overdue fine is issued, any demerit points will remain on your licence until your court application is processed. For more information on this, see Responding to an overdue fine.