The largest overdue Hawke's Bay fine for a single traffic infringement is $11,990 for vehicle registration and roadworthiness offences. It has been owing for 804 days and was imposed in Dannevirke District Court.
Hastings Budget Advisory Service co-ordinator Greta Wham said many of the service's clients owed money on traffic fines but those on benefits had regular deductions for repayment.
"We can usually negotiate with the court staff about something that the client can afford to pay," Mrs Wham said.
Every client had a different financial situation. "If you have to choose between paying a fine and buying food, you'd choose food," she said.
Non-registration or not getting a warrant of fitness was common among clients, who would keep driving and risk getting a fine, she said.
"One of the reasons [for not getting warrants or registration] is they feel that they can't afford to pay it."
Nationwide, traffic fine dodgers owe nearly $400 million in unpaid fines.
The largest single overdue traffic fine is $39,120 for vehicle registration and road worthiness offences. The fine was imposed in Manukau District Court and is overdue by 1481 days.
New measures introduced in February mean fine dodgers can lose their licence under the Driver Licence Stop Order (DLSO) sanction, which can be imposed on anyone who fails to pay traffic-related fines.
The ministry would not release data on how many stop orders had so far been imposed.
From May 17-18, Nelson police raided 100 Nelson properties, attempting to locate people owing unpaid fines.
Bailiffs seized 11 vehicles, cash, an Xbox, cameras, guitars, cellphones a TV and other personal assets, collecting a total of $196,206, with $30,960 of that being reparations owed to victims.
Minister of Courts Chester Borrows said fines existed to help change people's behaviour when they broke the law.
"It's about ensuring fines remain a credible sanction, which is what society wants," he said.
Court staff sought payment in full in the first instance but could negotiate sustainable repayment arrangements or enforcement powers when necessary, he said.
Enforcement could include making compulsory deductions from a person's wages, benefit or bank accounts, clamping vehicles, seizing and selling property, issuing warrants for people's arrest, preventing overseas travel and, as of February, suspending drivers' licences.
"The goal of the DLSO scheme is not to suspend licences but to encourage people to pay their fines and this is exactly what we're seeing."
The national total of $558,649,832 owing for all fines had fallen more than $250 million since peaking at $806 million in 2009.
Mr Borrows told Hawke's Bay Today the region's drivers were slightly better than the national average at paying their fines.
"As at June 2013, 43 per cent of fines nationally were overdue, compared with 45 per cent at Hastings, 41 per cent at Dannevirke and 35 per cent at Napier court.
"But any amount overdue is not good enough and those in Hawke's Bay who are still not paying their fines need to come to us before our bailiffs come see them."
More people were getting the message when it came to paying their fines, Mr Borrows said.
"This has seen both the value of fines owed fall by around $250 million in the last five years and the amount of what's owed that is overdue falling as well."
The downward trend in owed fines was due to falling crime rates, New Zealanders driving safer and court collections getting smarter about how they chased fines.
Hawke's Bay police Senior Sergeant Greg Brown said the Government had recently made several changes around the collection of fines, which meant simply ignoring fines was tougher because of flow-on effects, such as enforcement at the border.
"Police support the courts in the collection of monies owed through executing fines warrants, that may result in the person being held in police custody until a court is available or the money is paid, or through seizure warrants, whereby personal assets are seized by court order in lieu of unpaid fines."
