A Norwood man owes the state more than $50,000 in fines.
He is one of more than 4000 Tasmanians who have been named and shamed on a public state government website, which lists outstanding parking and court fines and infringement notices.
Those unpaid fines form part of an ongoing $61 million debt to the state, which is managed by the Monetary Penalties Enforcement Service and has gone up $3 million since 2014.
The highest unpaid debt is $1.2 million, attributed to abalone trafficker David Wei Meng Lee who was convicted in 2016.
Another Launceston man owes $30,263, while a Victorian man owes a total of $314,570.
More than 7225 Australians who have not paid their fines are listed on the MPES website, as part of sanctions managed by the service.
Other sanctions include the suspension of drivers’ licences, suspension of a car registration, the redirection of money owed, and the seizure and sale of assets.
MPES had a 95 per cent success rate in debt collection last year, down 3 per cent from the year before.
Unpaid fines are referred to MPES by courts, police, local governments and public sector bodies who have issued penalties.
MPES issued 27,387 sanctions over the past year – 5252 more than the year before – according to the Justice Department’s annual report for 2016-2017.
Fines referred to MPES last year reached $16.7 million, which formed part of the ‘aged’ debt of $61 million.
The total $61 million of aged debt includes money referred for collection before 2008.
MPES began naming and shaming in 2014.
“This segment of debt is now quite old, and the information available on the location of debtors is often unreliable,” the Justice Department’s annual report states.
“A number of projects were undertaken over the past two years to review aged debt, particularly where a lack of information would make it difficult to enforce.”
