800 face arrest for unpaid fines

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 8

800 face arrest for unpaid fines

By

JOHN HARFORD

Several hundred people In Christchurch could be arrested because they have not paid parking fines.

About 800 warrants for arrest on counts of unpaid fines have been passed to the police by the Justice Department Sergeant John McCormick said the warrants arrived on Monday. Most were for parking and minor traffic offences.

Each person had already ignored an offence notice and a court summons which had been sent

Finding and arresting the 800 people would be time-consuming but the police had to take action, he said.

A relatively small fine soon increased greatly when people ignored requests for payment Sergeant McCormick said a fine issued in Dunedin on September 17 for parking on a broken yellow line had originally

been for 530. Another 515 had been added for nonpayment and a further $55 for the cost of the summons. Once arrested, an offender would be taken to the District Court offices. If an immediate payment could not be made, the offender would be meanstested and arrangements made for payment by instalment Persons arrested for non-payment of parking fines would not be kept in police cells but taken straight to the court offices. Sergeant McCormick said he was trying to get in touch with persons before an arrest was made in the hope they would make payment themselves. ; The deputy registrar of fines at the District Court, Mr Chris Timms, said the arrest warrants were issued after court staff had cleared a backlog of paper work. Most offences had been committed in the latter half of 1986.

Some of the warrants issued for unpaid fines related to criminal offences. He did not know how much money was owed in unpaid fines or what had happened to cause the backlog. The extra emphasis on unpaid fines had already begun to pay off. The New Brighton police had brought in six people on one weekday to settle their fines, said Mr Timms.

Court staff had. decided themselves to clear the backlog of unpaid fines. They had been able to put more emphasis on the work while the courts were quiet immediately after Christmas and New Year.

Mr Timms thought most of the people involved were honest and had simply forgotten to pay their fine?. . If left too long, a $4 parking fine became $B5 with the chance of arrest, he said.