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linkUK: Government to Confiscate Property for Unpaid Fines
New UK agency will break and enter homes to confiscate the property of those with unpaid speeding tickets.

Lord Falconer, Britain's Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, is expected to announce a new confiscatory power to enable the government to collect unpaid money from speed camera tickets and other fines owed to the government. This power will reside in a "National Enforcement Service" with government officers empowered to enter and search the homes of those with unpaid fines. These bailiffs could then seize and sell possessions to cover unpaid fines.

The new agency would start by targeting "hard core" offenders. Last year, 20 percent of fines imposed by the courts went unpaid. "We have achieved a lot in cracking down on fine dodgers and bail bandits but a lot remains to be done," Lord Falconer said.

Article Excerpt:
"This new national enforcement service, together with the new powers we have given them, will make a huge difference in tackling the small hard core of offenders who think they can get away with it. We want to make sure there is no hiding for fine dodgers" [Lord Falconer said.]
Source: Bailiffs to target motorists who fail to pay fines (The Independent (UK), 3/13/2005)

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

What ever happened to the police?

NATIONAL ENFORCEMENT SERIVCE, is this part of the MINERSTERY OF JUCTICE.

Have woken up in a film, equilibrium for example?

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Oct 11 Birmingham Half Marathon. I am running for the British Heart Foundation.
http://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Taylor

Reap what you sow.

This is what happens when you introduce wave after wave of offences designed to scare people into submission with no real force to back them up.

They thought that fining people could be done on the cheap using IT. Now they realise otherwise.

There are a few problems with this.

Firstly, these days, a lot of "fines" are actually civil penalties. Will these be enforced by this new pseudo police force? Will they be sent round by a court?

Secondly, bailiffs can only sieze property if ti belongs to the miscreant. Breaking into a house and just taking goods may lead them open to theft charges id the items belong to, for example, the lodger.

Thirdly, suppose you have a legitimate reson for non-payment (like you are appealing the sentence). What happens then?

Fourthly, I want to be a spectator when they go round to sieze property on the local traveller's site.

I suspect this is scare tactics to try to get a few more offenders to pay up and little will actually come of it.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

I don't think any of those problems are new. The only difference is that with the new powers they can actually break in to get the goods, rather than trick/bluff their way in. The power to take the stuff is already there, including for 'civil' fines (which is a BS term, of course, unless you specially rewrite the definitions of civil and criminal).