Alexandra Sandy Clifford, 36, of Anne Street, Mittagong, was hit with fines and costs totalling $432,413 in Nowra Local Court on Friday following allegations she charged Kangaroo Valley woman Marcia Doidge $200 a day to take her to visit her dying daughter Margaret in Shoalhaven District Hospital.

Ms Clifford was not in the court at the time, later said she was not aware she had been charged with any offences.

She claimed she had operated a private hire car service several years ago, and had transported Ms Doidge once during that time.

However Ms Clifford said she sold the business several years ago, and “I haven’t been doing anything since”.

She admitted driving Ms Doidge to Shoalhaven Hospital several times last year but said it was as a friend, with no fee charged.

“We were friends, we used to go out shopping, have lunch together, and I used to help her out around her home,” Ms Clifford said.

“She even filled out forms to make me her carer, but I couldn’t do it.”

Ms Clifford was not given a chance to present her side of the argument to Friday’s court case, with Magistrate Doug Dick accepting RTA claims it had sent all relevant information relating to the charges to Ms Clifford’s home address.

With no contradictory information presented to the court, Mr Dick accepted the RTA’s case on 105 charges relating to 35 incidents in April and May last year.

The court was told Ms Clifford took Ms Doidge from Kangaroo Valley to Shoalhaven Hospital daily from April 2 to April 30 to visit her dying daughter, at a cost of $200 for each return trip.

There were six more trips between May 16 and May 29, when Ms Doidge’s daughter passed away in Karinya, again costing $200 for each journey, according to the RTA’s charges.

On each occasion Ms Clifford arrived at Ms Doidge’s Kangaroo Valley house driving either a Ford or a Mercedes.

While checks revealed Ms Clifford did not hold the appropriate licences, approvals or permits to operate a private hire car, information presented to the court showed she had actually applied to the RTA for accreditation to operate a private hire vehicle in November, 2008.

However the application was not processed, with the file marked “financial statement to be submitted”.

Ms Clifford was charged with 35 counts each of carrying on a private hire vehicle service without accreditation, carrying on a private hire vehicle service without a licence, and driving a private hire vehicle without authority.

Finding the charges proved, Magistrate Doug Dick imposed fines totalling $420,000, along with court and professional costs amounting to an additional $12,413.

Some of the money paid on the fines will be going to the RTA.

However Ms Clifford said she would be fighting the charges and the fines.

“I’ll be speaking to the minister’s office on Monday morning,” she said.

“There’s no way I can pay those sort of fines”.

She said she could not even afford a lawyer to act on her behalf as “I lost everything” during an earlier two-year battle with the RTA that resulted in her selling her private hire car business.