Criminal charges loom for traffic offenders
Highway residents are warned to pay for their traffic fines timeously or face a criminal record.
MOTORISTS who wait to receive a court summons for their unpaid speeding fines will soon face a criminal charge should they opt to pay for admission of guilt.
Local resident, Andy Gardner, received a R150 fine for driving 96km/h in an 80km/h zone but claims he never received the fine. He later received a summons and opted to pay the admission of guilt fine.
“I just couldn’t believe it when I saw that if I signed the document I would have a criminal record for life. How many other members of the public paid for the admission of guilt and are sitting with criminal records they don’t know anything about?”
It states in terms of section 56 of the Criminal Procedures Act, which was passed in 1977, that should the accused pay the admission of guilt fine, the accused will be deemed to have been “convicted and sentenced by the court” and that the conviction will appear on their “criminal record.”
According to Gardner’s attorney, Andrew Leaker of Morris Fuller Walden Wiliams Inc, because speeding is a criminal offence, and Gardner was issued with a criminal summons, he will be convicted should he pay the fine and this will then show up on his record.
“In the past members of the public were not informed that if they pay their fine they will receive a record. The result of this is the new procedure where people have to be informed that the admission of guilt they are paying will result in a criminal record,” said Leaker.
