THE Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, has announced that the newly implemented electronic ticketing system will be enforced with severe consequences for those attempting to evade fines and subsequent court appearances.
Nandlall mentioned this during his weekly show, ‘Issues in the News’, during which he stated that since the system went live earlier this week, the statistics have been staggering with over 200 offences accumulated on the first day.
While persons have already been receiving tickets, he reiterated that these would be sent from the system through SMS, WhatsApp, and Email addresses and via registered post to addresses and even hand-delivered.

The tickets, he said, would state the date and time of the offence, where you can appear in court if you wish to contest the offence. Additionally, tickets can be paid at MoneyGram locations and at the various courts along with some other places.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General noted that if persons do not pay the tickets or attend court, the case will be called in their absence, an arrest warrant can be issued for them or the case can proceed ex parte and they can be convicted in their absence.
“Your licence can be suspended, so the consequences are firm and drastic. In some cases, your licence will remain suspended until you liquidate your indebtedness,” he said.

Providing further details, the minister stated that the database will generate tickets only in relation to the registered owner of the vehicle.
“So, if you, the registered owner, give someone else to drive your vehicle you will get the ticket, not the driver, because the database doesn’t have the driver in it,” he said.

As a result, he noted that when the registered owner receives the ticket, they will have to go to court and explain that they were not the driver and who the driver was at the time who will have to also be named as a defendant and will be issued a ticket as well.
This, he said, is common practice in other developed countries and states.