ACMA prosecutes man for interfering with taxi frequencies

A man in Melbourne has been fined $3500 and ordered to pay costs after pleading guilty to three offences of deliberately disrupting a taxi company’s radio communications system using a non-standard radio transmitter.

Upon investigating allegations of radio interference at West Gippsland Taxis Pty Ltd, ACMA inspectors found the defendant using a transmitter that he had modified to disrupt taxi operations and make frivolous calls to Triple Zero and the RACV using the taxi service’s frequency.

The defendant pleaded guilty to three breaches under the Radiocommunications Act: operating a radio communications device without a licence (subsection 46(1) of the Act); causing a radio emission to be made by a transmitter knowing that it was a non-standard transmitter (section 157 of the Act); and causing substantial disruption or disturbance of radio communications (section 197 of the Act).

“In this case, the offender programmed a device to overcome security functions to deliberately disrupt radio communications services,” said ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman. “Radiocommunications provide access to critical emergency and community services and the ACMA will not tolerate intentional non-compliance.”