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[THE ATTORNEY GENERAL] Fixed Penalty (Traffic Contraventions)
Bill-second reading
of the penalty, costs, towing charges, licence fees and any other charges incurred under the Ordinance are paid in full by the defendant.
The Commissioner must, as soon as possible after seizure, serve notice on the defendant that he has detained the vehicle and the Commissioner may, if the defendant does not claim the vehicle within 3 months, publish in the Gazette a notice, in the prescribed form, of his intention to apply for a warrant of distress.
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One month after the publication of that notice in the Gazette, the Commissioner of Police may apply to a magistrate for a warrant of distress to enforce payment of any outstanding sums which the defendant is liable to pay by the sale of the car. As honourable Members will see, the sale of the vehicle arises only as a last resort. Even if the whole process from the contravention to the sale is carried through in the minimum possible time, a period of approximately 6 to 7 months must elapse and in most cases it will probably be sub- stantially longer.
It should I think also be noticed that, since the normal procedure for issuing a warrant of distress under the Magistrates Ordinance will apply, persons with competing claims to the proceeds of sale, which would of course include a hire purchase company, will be able to put these before the magistrate and will receive any balance which is available from the sale of the vehicle after the amounts due under the Ordinance have been settled. The obligation on the Commissioner of Police to advertise in the Gazette at least one month before applying for a warrant to sell the car should amount to an adequate warning to all hire purchase companies that one of their vehicles may be in danger of being sold.
I believe that this bill will be widely welcomed by members of the public who would I think, on the whole, prefer their minor con- traventions of motoring laws to be treated as giving rise to civil debts and not as making them into small criminals. It is, so far as I know, an original solution to an intractable problem and one which will, I believe, prove to be both effective and practical. If it does, it may be possible in the future to extend it to other contraventions of the law, in which the element of moral blame is negligible.
Question proposed.
Motion made (pursuant to Standing Order No 30). That the debate on the second reading of the bill be adjourned-THE COLONIAL SECRETARY (SIR HUGH NORMan-Walker).
Question put and agreed to.