KEY POINTS:
Court bailiffs joined Hamilton police at the weekend in a boy-racer blitz that netted thousands of dollars in fines and confiscated cars.
Fourteen boy racers were charged with drink-driving and police stopped 2435 cars and issued 167 tickets for infringements on Saturday night.
Thirty-two tickets were issued for traffic offences, including burnouts, illegal racing and illegally modified cars.
Non-operation orders were placed on eight cars and three cars were impounded.
Sergeant Jeff Penno said court bailiffs, working with police, impounded 12 cars owned by people with outstanding fines.
Several thousand dollars in unpaid fines were paid on the spot, but the cars impounded by the bailiffs represented a total of $41,000 in outstanding fines.
Mr Penno said the operation was one of several police had planned for the city. The inclusion of court bailiffs was designed to help the courts recoup unpaid fines.
"In many cases, fines are not a deterrent for boy racers and they are just ignored.
"Having the bailiffs working alongside us at the weekend proved beneficial for them, but it also sent the message that if you get fined, you have to pay up eventually."
Mr Penno said it was disappointing to see that drink-drivers featured so highly again in boy-racer operations.
Out of the 14 caught drink-driving, one man was so drunk he was driving on the wrong side of the road on Avalon Drive and was too drunk to take a breath test.
A 16-year-old female driver blew 706mcg of alcohol per litre of breath. The youth limit is 150 mcg.
- NZPA
