Every bailiff in the country is going to be out in force today, scanning the number plates of parked cars to identify those amongst us who have overdue court fines and reparation. You can run but you cannot hide. And if you can't pay your fines or make arrangements to pay them, your car may well be clamped or towed away to be sold to recoup the parking fines you haven't paid. In July of last year, bailiffs began trialling handheld devices to scan number plates of parked cars and those stopped at some breath testing stations. So far, and this is just since July of last year, the new technology has returned a total of $4,241,867 —no word on the cents— in fines and reparations as of a few days ago. Paul Goldsmith says the message to those who owe money is simple: pay your court fines or you may be walking home. He was on with Mike Hosking this morning and said the swarming of the country with bailiffs is not just about revenue gathering, it's also about raising awareness of court fines. 

“I also heard them saying, “Is this a PR exercise?" Well, yeah, it is an element of PR. We want to actually get the message out that you've got to pay your fines. And so it's pretty sort of simple so that we can spend that money, and it's a good $4 million we can spend that on helping victims out from suffering from the consequences of all this."

Well, quite. Any dollar counts given the parlous state of the country, and getting $4,241,867 back as of just a few days ago is a very good start. So far, bailiffs have scanned well over a quarter of a million number plates and identified 7,148 people with overdue court fines or reparation. Of those, 1,320 people paid on the spot, a further 561 organised a payment arrangement, 404 people had their vehicle seized, 683 had their vehicle clamped. So they're getting on with it. They're not mucking around.  

But while I'm all for people paying what they owe, and I had to come to an arrangement when I was a mad thing many years ago —before I became the sensible voice of reason on the wireless— with the courts to pay off my parking fines, and they were substantial by the time you put the penalties in there, and it took about a year to pay off. But I did pay them off. I'm all for people paying what they owe, but I do hope there'll be some willingness from the courts to work with those who have allowed fines to back up. If you have a bit of disposable income, fines are annoying. They're like, “Ugh, oh well, better pay it." You pay it, you resolve to be more careful next time. But if you are on the bones of your bum, if the couple of days before payday are tight, there is no extra money to go around – a fine can be absolutely disastrous if it comes with another unexpected expense.  

I don't think people who are comfortable have any idea what financial anxiety is like, that gnawing in your stomach, that sick feeling of thinking, “I don't know how I'm going to pay this." And if you get a parking fine or if you haven't got your rego done because you're waiting till next month to get the rego done but then you're sprung, yeah, you know that you owe it, you know that you have to pay, but there's something that needs that money more urgently. It's not all cigarettes and Sky television, it's not all drugs and alcohol. For a lot of either working families or families on benefits trying to get by, they are doing the best with what they have. And I just hope the courts show a little bit of leniency if you enter into a payback arrangement, otherwise, it's just a spiral further and further downwards, which doesn't help anybody.  

And if you need your car for work because you're barely getting by and your car's seized or clamped, you lose your job. Again, it's that debt spiral further and further and further down. Yes, pay what you owe. I've done it when it's been really difficult to do, and I've done it when it's been relatively easy to do. Maybe be proactive. If you've got that technology and you know that somebody owes a fine, get onto it before and get them onto an arrangement before it becomes so big it becomes a debt mountain they simply cannot scale. They'll never see the top of it, they'll never see the back of it.