MEANS TO PAY FINES

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28435, 15 November 1957, Page 23

MEANS TO PAY FINES

Magistrates’ Worry c Starts Controversy ’ g (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) E

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 14. A Bench of Magistrates at Newcastle on Tyne has started a controversy by suggesting a means test for motorists. The Magistrates were considering a case in which’, a driver had pleaded guilty by letter, but they had no indication about his means. “We have run up against this trouble before,” said the Bench spokesman, Mr Frank Morton Smith. “A man admits speeding and we can fine him up to £2O according to the circumstances of the case and his means, but we do not know his means. “It would help us if officers concerned in such cases put into the statement of facts as far as possible what defendants means are. “I want the police to ascertain means if they can. Otherwise, the defendant will have to take the consequences.” Later, Mr Morton Smith said that he would be horrified of any suggestion that the Bench was snooping. “We do not want to overfine someone and cause them perhaps acute financial embarrassment. An Automobile Association spokesman said, “We would take the strongest objection to the police questioning motorists about their means. The act makes it clear that only a concise statement of facts of the alleged offence is admissible. “A suggestion that the defendant who does not supply enough information about his means may suffer a higher penalty seems to us most improper.” A senior police officer in Lancashire commented: “I imagine that if policemen started asking motorists about their means they would be told to go away in strong terms.”