Sunfish:
As for CASA being able to prevent Mr. Hempel from using an aircraft, please give them some credit. Exactly how are they able to do this in the face of a decision by someone to deliberately break the law?
Road users are occasionally caught without licences. Mr. Hempel's situation is not much different from a car driver. Since aircraft are very expensive and flown by multiple pilots, "wheel clamping" is not a practical option.
It "may" be possible to detect an offence by detecting an aircraft associated with a particular person, but you can't pull over an aircraft.
In Hempel case, from listening to the CEO and Chief Pilot and attending the inquest Part 1, it became very clear that the Yak was Barry's private plane and he was very possessive about it and allegedly allowed no one to pilot it. Even the Chief pilot reported that he only flew in it very occasionally but with Barry. It appears Barry even locked the Yak away in another location when he went out of town so that no one could fly it.
So many people knew Barry and so many people knew what Barry was doing and 'turned a blind eye'. In Barry's case could it have been feasible to 'wheel clamp' his beloved Yak? There were just so many instances that imply that Barry was a 'protected species'. Something is just 'not right' in this whole case and hopefully something good will come out of the inquest findings for all.