Fine defaulters in regional WA targeted

Thursday, 20 October 2016

• Liberal National Government extends the clampdown on fine and infringement defaulters to regional and remote WA
• Measures to include car seizures, licence plate removal and wheel clamping 

Tough measures designed to force hardcore fine and infringement defaulters to pay their debts will be extended further across the State.

Attorney General Michael Mischin today announced the Mid-West, Wheatbelt, Goldfields-Esperance, and Great Southern as the regions which would face the increased measures.

"This encompasses large regional centres such as Geraldton, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Albany and Esperance and all of the smaller towns within those regions," Mr Mischin said.

"Serious defaulters in these areas who have more than $2,000 in unpaid infringements, or who have substantial court fines, now face wheel clamping or the seizure of their cars and the removal of their licence plates.

"Data captured by the Sheriff indicated that the most common place for the cars of fines and infringement defaulters to be detected is at shopping centre car parks, train stations and the casino.

"This suggests that some of these offenders have enough money to travel, and gamble, and to drive while their licence is suspended, and they are deliberately choosing not to pay the money they owe the community of Western Australia - and that is just not good enough."

The Attorney General said the tougher measures had been progressively rolled out in the metropolitan area, Peel and the South-West since 2013.  Naming and shaming of the top 100 fine and infringement defaulters already applied State-wide.

"Boosting the roll-out will be a new network of numberplate recognition cameras, one of which has already been used on a trial basis in Perth, Peel and the South-West to scan cars in busy areas such as shopping centres, train station car parks and the main street of country towns," Mr Mischin said.

"The expanded camera network is another weapon in our arsenal to track down persistent fine defaulters, who often try to avoiding wheel clamping or vehicle seizure by parking a few streets away from home or at local shops."

Fact File

• The more stringent enforcement measures were made possible through amendments in 2013 to the Fines, Penalties and Infringement Notices Enforcement Act 1994