KEY POINTS:
A proposed Government crackdown on unpaid fines will make a bad situation worse, says a New Zealand car buyers' publication.
Courts Minister Rick Barker said this week the Government was planning to make it tougher on people who did not pay their fines.
One measure being considered is to suspend the licences of people who do not pay transport-related fines.
The editor of the Dog & Lemon Guide, Clive Matthew-Wilson, said an Australian study found fines had little effect on curbing bad driver behaviour.
The study, by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime statistics and Research, identified 70,000 NSW drivers who had been fined for driving offences between 1998 and 2000. Researchers followed each offender for five years to see whether they committed more driving offences.
The bureau found no relationship between the size of the fine imposed and the likelihood of another driving offence.
Mr Matthew-Wilson said getting tough on fine defaulters would make criminals of people who were often "simply messy teenagers".
The Government said it had looked at the Queensland system, under which not paying a fine for a traffic or parking offence eventually resulted in licences being suspended.
The threat of a suspension had resulted in 50 per cent of defaulters paying their fines. Another 25 per cent paid once their licence was suspended.
Justice, transport and land transport officials have been asked to look at this idea and report back to the Government by July 1 next year.
- NZPA
