$12.5m in unpaid traffic fines

More than 1500 Rotorua drivers have unpaid fines at the Rotorua District Court.

Rotorua fine dodgers owe more than $12.5 million in unpaid traffic fines, new figures reveal.

More than 15,000 Rotorua drivers have piled up unpaid traffic offence fines at Rotorua District Court, according to Ministry of Justice figures released under the Official Information Act.

More than 3242 drivers owe money for driver licence offences, which includes driving while disqualified or driving without a licence, or with an expired licence.

Another 12,925 have overdue fines for regulatory driving offences such as speeding, drink driving, and parking offences, and 6721 are yet to front up on vehicle registration and roadworthiness offences, including driving an unregistered vehicle, or having faulty lights.

Some drivers will have fines across various offence categories and courthouses, which distorts the overall driver numbers.

The largest overdue Rotorua fine for a single traffic infringement is $14,270 for vehicle registration and road worthiness offences. It has been owing for 608 days.

Rotorua lawyer Martin Hine said the problem with the New Zealand fines system was "no immediacy of demand", compared to the United States where fines had to be paid immediately or offenders faced consequences such as jail time.

The pervading ethos in New Zealand was "you can put it on tick and pay it off", he said.

That led to people not paying fines, and fines not having the "bite" they did overseas.

"Maybe what needs to be done is a dramatic rethink about fines as a sanction, and when fines should be imposed."

Most judges would not readily impose fines on beneficiaries because it was more difficult for them to repay the money, he said.

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 at 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.