AS OF Monday police will start checking everyone leaving Cyprus through the island’s airports for those who have until now dodged paying fines or other outstanding payments to the state or courts, and those who don’t pay up will be arrested, police said yesterday.
Members of the public, among them politicians, lawyers and prominent individuals, collectively owe the state €135 million in penalties, fines, overdue alimony payments, social insurance, and taxes.
The police chief has warned that people would be made to pay “whoever they are.”
From Monday a month-long trial period involving checks, arrests, and payment collections at airports will begin.
Police official Demetris Pitsillides said yesterday that though they would be evaluating cases individually, the force would also be strict and may arrest those who cannot or will not pay.
“Without the measure of imprisonment, we can’t have the desired results,” he said.
“A lot of time has been put into this.”
He said that the police had given people a grace period over the Christmas holidays, but their time was up.
Once someone is fingered as a dodger at the airport, they will be escorted to ATMs to withdraw money to pay their penalty and if they are unable to pay on the spot arrangements may be made for them to pay as soon as they return from their journey abroad, Pitsillides said.
“We have standing instructions to have a police officer pay a visit on the day after [the traveller returns],” Pitsillides said.
Some of the millions in outstanding payments have been pending for decades, and courts have so far issued about 160,000 warrants, state broadcaster CyBC said last night.
Police were previously criticised for not taking action to execute warrants with the force saying they could not locate people, even the public figures, and members of the force itself.
Auditor general Chrystalla Georghadji even said that the police were enabling the status quo, telling the House Watchdog committee that a glance at who owes money to the state would demonstrate how easily some of the people on the list could be found.
About 750 warrants worth €800,000 involve lawyers, and 2,000 warrants involve civil servants, Georghadji told the House in November.
Members of the agricultural payments organisation had 4,000 warrants between them while there were 600 warrants pertaining to companies owing a total of €3.0 million.
At least the police will not have to arrest their own this time. Some 300 of their own had warrants issued in their names but they were served after Georghadji informed the police chief in writing.
