New law catch fines defaulters heading overseas

Minister for Courts Rick Barker warned people with unpaid reparation or fines to think twice before they take off on holiday, following the passing of the Courts and Criminals Matters Bill in Parliament yesterday.

The legislation gives the Ministry of Justice the ability to compare its database of reparation or fines defaulters with the New Zealand Customs Service’s database as people travel in and out of the country and will enable serious defaulters to be intercepted at international airports.

“It’ll be a case of ‘pay or stay’ for serious reparation or fines defaulters with people facing arrest if they can not pay up immediately, which will put a bit of a damper on travel plans,” said Rick Barker.

“Some fines defaulters will trigger silent alerts as they pass through international airports and while they will not be stopped there and then, their current contact details will be provided to the Ministry and used to initiate enforcement action.”

“If you owe reparation and you are not making payments, you will be stopped at the airport.”

As well as introducing the collection of fines and reparation at airports, the Bill makes a number of improvements to the law relating to the enforcement of fines and reparation.

The Bill allows for the electronic filing of unpaid infringement fines with the District Court by prosecuting authorities, a process which is largely paper-based. Electronic filing should enhance the quality and completeness of information on fines defaulters to enable the more effective collection of fines.

The new legislation will also allow the Ministry to obtain more information about reparation or fines defaulters from IRD and MSD, which will aid in the collection of unpaid reparation and fines.