After you are given a fine, a copy is sent to Revenue NSW. Revenue NSW is responsible for collecting payments of fines after an authorised officer or a court issues them.

For more information, see Have you got a fine?

This page doesn't deal with fines that have been given to you by a court. If you have already been fined by a court, see After Court.

Traffic offences

One of the most common reasons you may be fined is if you disobey a traffic law, for example:

• speeding
• using a mobile phone while driving
• not wearing a seat belt
• not indicating when turning a corner
• stopping within ten metres of an intersection
• driving an unregistered car
• driving through a red light.

NSW Police or Transport for NSW (TfNSW) (formerly known as Roads and Maritime Services or RMS) can give fines for traffic offences. TfNSW will issue fines when an offence has been caught by one of their cameras, for example, a speed or red light camera.

For many traffic offences you will also be given demerit points on your driver's licence. If you get too many demerit points your licence may be suspended.

Your licence can be suspended if:

• you have a learner licence or a Provisional (P1) driver's licence and you receive 4 or more demerit points in a 3-year period.
• you have a Provisional (P2) driver's licence and you receive 7 or more demerit points in a 3-year period.
• you have a full driver's licence and you receive 13 or more demerit points in a 3-year period.

Your licence can also be suspended if you have been fined for certain traffic offences, for example, if you exceed the speed limit by more than 30 kilometres per hour.

 If you receive a fine for a low range drink driving (first offence), novice PCA (first offence) or special range (PCA), police can issue an immediate three month suspension.

​If you have received a notice of licence suspension, or if your licence has been suspended, you may be able to either appeal or avoid the suspension. You should act quickly because time limits apply. For more information, see Licence suspensions.

For more serious traffic offences, you may be given a Court Attendance Notice (CAN). If you get a CAN you will have to go to court on the date listed on the CAN and the court will decide whether to give you a fine and disqualify your licence For more information, see Going to court.

Before you can apply for a new licence you must pay all you outstanding fines or enter into a payment plan. You may be able to enter into a Work Development Order (WDO), apply to have the fine written off or request a fine reduction.

Public transport offences

You can be given fines for offences committed on public transport, such as:

• travelling on a train without a ticket
• placing your feet on seats
• littering on a train
• smoking on a train or in covered or enclosed areas of a train station
• damaging or vandalising a train.

Transport Officers or NSW Police can give fines on public transport.

Fines for public transport offences can also be known as 'penalty notices' or 'infringement notices'.

Local council fines

Councils have the power to fine you for a number of offences, including:

• parking offences
• not cleaning up after your dog
• wasting water
• damaging public property
• illegal dumping, littering and pollution
• continual barking by your dog
• not having your pet properly registered.

If the council has taken a photo of the alleged offence, you may be able view it by contacting the council.

Other offences

The police can also issue fines for minor criminal offences, for example, shoplifting and offensive behaviour. This type of fine is called a Criminal Infringement Notice (CIN).

For more information about CINs, see Criminal In​fringement Notices​ on the NSW Police Force website.

A number of government agencies also have the power to issue fines, for example:

• NSW Fisheries has the power to fine you for fishing without a licence
• the NSW Food Authority has the power to fine you for not complying with health regulations when serving food.

Non-payment of a toll notice

If you travel on a toll road and do not pay the toll, the registered operator of the vehicle will be sent a toll notice. This will ask them to pay the toll plus an extra administration charge. This is not a fine.

If you get a toll notice, you can:

• pay the toll,
• object to the toll or
• complete a statutory declaration to report that someone else was driving your car at the time.

For more information, see the Sydney Motorways website.

If you do not respond to the toll notice, you may then be sent a fine. This fine is for the offence of non payment of a toll. You can use the information in this topic to respond to this fine. ​