Courts to put the clamps on dodgers

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 613, 21 November 1995, Page 1

Courts to put the clamps on dodgers

Car owners with outstanding Court fines will have their wheels clamped this week according to Taihape District Court bailiff Rob Webb. He told the Bulletin last week that of all fines owing in the Justice Department's Taihape division (which includes Taihape, Waiouru and the Waimarino) 80 per cent are owing in the Waimarino. Outstanding fines currently total $166,000 having recently been reduced from $205,000 during the month-long amnesty period. That amnesty has now expired and, as part of the firmer measures being undertaken to recover outstanding fines, wheel-clamping is now an option available to the Justice Department. The clamps will be applied by day and if the fines are not paid by the end of the day or arrangements have not been made to pay them, the vehicle will be towed away.

Mr Webb explained that part of the problem in the Waimarino may be due to the fact that, unlike Taihape, the Justice Department does not have a permanent presence in the Waimarino in the form of a fully-staffed office operating five days a week into which fines could be paid. With sittings of the District Court being held in Ohakune only once a month some people may have difficulty paying off outstanding fines or making arrangements to have the fines paid by instalment, but fines could also be paid at any local police station, said Mr Webb. This week's wheel-clamping will not only affect owners of cars who owe fines ... clamps will be attached to any vehicle assumed to belong to, used by or at the address of the offender. It will then be up to the car's owner, if he or she is not liable for the outstanding fine, to prove they do not owe money to the Court before their vehicle is released.