$2 million in fines waived by court in last three years

Whanganui District Court has said goodbye to more than $2 million in unpaid fines since 2012.

Ministry of Justice records show the court waived $988,352 in fines in 2012; $595,139 in 2013; and $474,794 last year. The number of fines waived also decreased each year - down from 1443 in 2012 to 1275 in 2013 and 907 last year.

Over the three year period, the court substituted 15 fines with community detention, 393 with community work, 10 with home detention and 27 with imprisonment.

Former Whanganui electorate ACT candidate Alan Davidson believed the public was unhappy with some sentences.

"It's pointless fining people if they don't pay," he said.

Asked if he thought alternative sentences were suitable substitutes for fines, Mr Davidson said "perhaps community sentences should have been given out first".

Ministry of Justice general manager of collections Jacquelyn Shannon said the Ministry was committed to ensuring fines and reparation remained a credible sanction in New Zealand and legislation passed in 2010 gave the ministry enhanced collection powers.

"Changes include judges having the ability to re-sentence a person to prison or home detention if reparation they have been ordered to pay is unenforceable or unaffordable, provided these sentences were available at the time of the original sentencing ...

"Our efforts are paying off. The amount of outstanding fines and reparation has fallen from $658.8 million in July 2011 to $567.1 million owing as at 31 August 2014.

"The proportion of overdue fines has reduced from 48.2 per cent in July 2011, to 42.1 per cent as at 31 August 2014."

If required, enforcement of overdue amounts could include clamping vehicles, seizing and selling property, making compulsory deductions from a person's income or bank account, issuing warrants to arrest, suspending drivers' licences and preventing a person's international travel, she said.

However, in some circumstances such as death or company liquidation, the remittal of the fine was considered the most appropriate action, she said.

Nationally, the number of fines wiped rose from 78,443 in 2012 to 87,175 in 2013 and then dropped to 65,033 in 2014.

The value of fines wiped trended downwards, however. In 2012, $33,418,612 in fines were remitted, in 2013, $54,048,015 were remitted and last year, $40,847,021 were remitted.

Community work was by far the most common alternative sentence implemented - more than 14,000 fines were turned into community work in the past three years.

Meanwhile, more than 600 fines were transferred to community detention, more than 150 became home detention and more than 700 unpaid fines resulted in imprisonment.

Registrars and deputy registrars could also remit court costs and enforcement fees to encourage original fines to be paid, Ms Shannon said.