Bunbury City Council preparing to write off hundreds of thousands in fines

Councillors are expected to next week vote to write off a total of $157,200.98 in unpaid fines from the 2014 – 2015 financial year.

Unpaid parking fines and dog act infringements make up more than 90 per cent of the outstanding infringements.

The balance also includes unpaid fines in off-road vehicles, litter, bushfire regulations, local laws and the cat act.

The council acknowledged a report that suggests the likelihood of citizens paying their fines after two years is reduced, but Mayor Gary Brennan ensured fine evaders they were not off the hook.

“People should never think for a minute that the debt is forgiven. It’s not,” Mayor Brennan warned.

“It remains always until it’s paid, the debt remains even if you move away, it follows you everywhere.

“It stays on the Fines Enforcement Registry and that’s national. So at some point, you’ve got to come and pay it.”

Mayor Brennan said the amounts were being removed from the financial statements simply to reflect the collectability of infringements.

“The writing off is an accounting, a book entry function. So where you run an organisation, you’ve got people that owe you money and that stays on the books until it gets paid,” Mayor Brennan said.

“With us in local government, if those debts remain unpaid for a period of time, you don’t keep on putting them there.

“You write them off, so you take them off your accounts but the debt still remains so when those people do come and pay them, it’s treated as income at that time.”

Councillor James Hayward expressed concern in the increase in defaulters compared to the previous 2013 – 2014 financial year.

More than $72,000 is owed in dog act fines, more than three times the previous year’s write off of $22,336.45.

Similarly, unpaid parking fines are up nearly 300 per cent with $72,636.94 owing from 2014 – 2015, compared to $26,820.64 outstanding in the previous financial year.

The total amount of written-off outstanding fines for the 2013 – 2014 financial year was $56,994.79, only a third of the $157,200.98 expected to be written off at the end of this financial year.

 “There’s a massive increase in fine evaders,” Cr Hayward said.

“It’s quite remarkable the increase in the amount of debt not paid between those periods.

“Are people finding it more difficult generally to pay their outstanding fines?”