Where a licence is automatically cancelled under s 28 of the Motor Car Traders Act 1986 (Vic) upon conviction for a serious offence, and that conviction is subsequently set aside on appeal, the cancellation is retrospectively undone and the licensee is deemed never to have been convicted. The common law principle that a conviction set aside on appeal is avoided ab initio applies unless Parliament has clearly and unmistakably expressed an intention to abrogate it. The availability of an administrative discretion to permit continued holding of a licence (ss 29B, 29C) does not constitute an adequate alternative remedy displacing the common law protection.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 9 later cases that cite this judgment.
1 of the 9 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.