TNAG-0259-FCO40-295-Legislation-for-prevention-of-bribery-in-Hong-Kong-1970 — Page 147

14

[THE ATTORNEY GENERAL] Fixed Penalty (Traffic Contraventions)

Bill-second reading

If the owner decides to pay up, he must send to that address a cheque or cash, for which he will get a receipt in due course. There is no provision for the payment of any penalty on the spot, since the dangers of corruption in such a procedure are obvious.

If the owner fails to pay within seven days, then a notice will be posted by the police to the address of the registered owner which appears in the register of motor vehicles. The notice will require him to pay the $30 within 21 days after the contravention or within 10 days after the notice, whichever is the later.

If the owner fails to comply with this notice, then by clause 16 proceedings will be taken in the name of the Attorney General, who will in practice appoint police officers to act on his behalf, to recover the fixed penalty by civil proceedings before a magistrate. These proceedings will be instituted by a complaint which, by clause 17, may be served by sending it by post to the address of the registered

owner.

I think that I should emphasize the fact that liability for payment of the fixed penalty is placed by clause 14 on the registered owner of the vehicle, even if the contravention was committed without his knowledge or consent, although it will be a good defence for the registered owner to show that the vehicle had been taken and driven away without his consent or had been stolen at the time when the contravention occurred. The liability has been placed on the registered owner because the scheme for fixed penalties will not work properly unless it is kept as simple as possible. However, clause 24 makes it clear that a registered owner, who is obliged to pay a fixed penalty by virtue of the misuse of his vehicle by some other person, is entitled to recover this money from that other person.

If a person served with a summons under clause 17 fails to appear, then the magistrate can hear the case in his absence, though before doing so he must be satisfied that the summons was served a reason- able length of time before the hearing. If proceedings take place in the absence of the registered owner, then the complaint may be proved by producing to the magistrate firstly, a copy of the notice originally served under clause 15 that is to say, the notice demanding payment of the fixed penalty, accompanied by a certificate of posting; secondly, a certificate by the Commissioner for Transport stating that the person specified was the registered owner at a particular date, and thirdly, a certificate by the Commissioner for Transport stating that the fixed penalty has not been paid at the date of the certificate.