Tasmanian Consolidated Acts Tasmanian Consolidated Acts
(1) Subject to sections 19B and 19E, a court that convicts a person of a traffic offence may disqualify the person from driving for a period specified by the court.
(2) Subject to subsection (3), if a disqualification is imposed under this or any other Act against the holder of an Australian driver licence, the court must either suspend or cancel the licence as follows:
(a) if the disqualification is for 4 months or less, the licence is to be suspended;
(b) if the disqualification is for more than 4 months, the licence is to be cancelled.
(3) The court may, instead of cancelling a licence that is liable to cancellation under subsection (2), suspend the licence if the court thinks there is good reason to do so.
(4) A disqualification imposed by a court under this or any other Act, and a related licence suspension or cancellation imposed by the court, takes effect as follows:
(a) if the convicted person is not subject to a current period of disqualification, licence suspension or ineligibility to hold a driver licence as a result of the accumulation of demerit points – at the time of the order or a later time fixed by the court;
(b) if the convicted person is subject to a current period of disqualification, licence suspension or ineligibility to hold a driver licence as a result of the accumulation of demerit points – at the end of that period unless the court fixes an earlier or later time.
(5) If a disqualification is imposed under this or any other Act on a person who is not present in court when the disqualification is imposed, the court must postpone the commencement of the disqualification (and the related licence suspension or cancellation) for a specified period of at least 10 days and, in that event, the disqualification (and the related licence suspension or cancellation) commences –
(a) at the end of that period; or
(b) if the person against whom the disqualification is imposed submits to the disqualification on an earlier day by returning the licence to the Registrar, on that earlier day.
(6) The court's powers under this section are in addition to other powers the court may have to punish or deal with the convicted person in other ways.