When David Bond was pulled over by police and fined hundreds of dollars for driving his mother-in-law's car last year because its registration had just lapsed, he began wondering how many others had fallen foul of the law in recent years.

He was especially keen to investigate whether there had been a surge in fines for unregistered vehicles since the abolition of car rego stickers in early 2013. After all, a sticker on a car windscreen served as a reminder of the need to renew a registration.

UTS lecturer David Bond says the removal of registration stickers does appear to be part of the reason for a surge in infringements. Credit:Chris Pearce

"I was just genuinely interested to know whether people were getting unfairly done if they had legitimately forgotten [to renew their registration]," he said.

Using freedom of information laws, the senior lecturer at UTS' Business School requested data from the NSW government about infringements for unregistered vehicles over the past five years.