WA motorists could face wheel clamps over late fines

[Road_Warrior]

Western Australia, it's time to get angry:

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/west...-1225832345140

WA motorists who are late paying fines could soon find their vehicles wheel-clamped, in a proposal under development by Attorney-General Christian Porter.

Mr Porter, who has flagged the idea previously, said today he was working on the wheel-clamp plan, in a renewed push for tougher sanctions for fine defaulters.

He said he hoped to put the proposal, which could also include plans to confiscate vehicles and the removal of registration plates, to Cabinet in the first half of this year.

It could be introduced into State Parliament soon after.

"At the moment the way in which we attempt to stop an individual using their vehicle if they've got outstanding fines is to take their licence off them," Mr Porter told media today

He said simply cancelling people's licences had failed to act as a deterrent because the "hardcore non-payers" continued to flout the law and drive.

"It's been a concern for Attorneys-General past but no one's actually done anything about it.

"One great way to stop people from using their vehicles is to immobilise their vehicles with a wheel clamp and then the choices are pay their fines or get a good pair of running shoes."

Last year more than 70,000 motorists had licenses suspended do to unpaid fines, whose value has passed $220 million.

When The Sunday Times broke the wheel-clamp story exclusively early this month, Mr Porter said present laws also allowed confiscation of defaulters' cars.

But he said this was costly and seldom used because often the vehicles had little value, so selling them did not recoup costs.

Clamping cars was a lot cheaper and could be done anywhere, including at a person's house or workplace.

The ABC today quoted Opposition legal spokesman John Quigley as pointing to possible big problems from the scheme - in particular, the likelihood of vehicles being wrongly or unjustly clamped.

Good luck getting access to my garage so you can clamp my vehicle, you bunch of Nazis.

Now, I don't have any unpaid or late fines, I haven't had a traffic infringement in years so I'm not really concerned about my vehicles being affected by this, but I'm more than a little bit concerned at this legal concept which to me is thin edge of the wedge type stuff, along with Rob Johnston's "stop and search" laws.

So are they dirty about the money (unpaid fines) or people flouting the law and continuing to drive while under suspension? If people keep driving without a licence, put them in the slammer for a month. But it seems its more about the money than anything...as usual...