Photo: Unsplash
The government has come up with a new way to force people to pay their court fines - they will clamp and seize cars.
Justice Minister Paul Goldmith told Checkpoint there's over $100 million in unpaid court fines and hundreds of millions in reparations not paid.
"We've got to do something about it, it's not right."
But how exactly does it work?
"We're talking about fines that have been imposed by the courts and also reparations, where the court has said you need to pay a certain amount of money to the victim of a crime," Goldsmith said.
"We're not talking about someone's who's got a speeding ticket," he said, unless the fines have built up enough that the court has ordered them to be paid.
Baliffs will be trialling handheld devices that scan number plates on parked cars to flag unpaid fines or reparations.
Starting this weekend they'll also be at breath testing checkpoints.
If there's a match, the car would be clamped or towed.
Goldsmith said when your car is taken you won't necessarily have to pay the fine in full immediately, as long as you had a plan to start paying it.
He advised people with unpaid fines or reparations to contact the Ministry of Justice to do this.
Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
At a checkpoint, there will be handheld eftpos machines so you have an option to pay your fine straight away and get your car back, he said.
Just how much an unpaid fine would need to be before action is taken is unclear, with the minister saying if he disclosed that it may incentivise people to only pay their fine up to that amount to avoid any consequences.
The minister was tight-lipped about which regions this will be first rolled out.
He would also not reveal the cost of the scheme.
