Public can now check outstanding fines online

THE PUBLIC will now be able to find out if they have any outstanding warrants or fines against them through a new page on the police website, Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou announced on Monday.

“This important initiative combines a new police philosophy which aims to serve the public and also the wider government policy of introducing online services as a key component of the new state model,” Nicolaou said.

The minister said that according to research a large number of people are unaware or do not remember that they have unpaid fines. Under new regulations brought in last year, people can now be stopped at airports and ports if they have outstanding fines.

Under the new system the public can find out if they owe the state any money online.

In the future the programme will be further upgraded so that they can find out exactly how much they owe and pay that amount online.

“I would like to call on the public to use the programme via the police’s website, not only to meet their obligations and to avoid any unneeded inconvenience or delay if they wish to leave the island,” the minister said.

According to the head of the police’s research and development department, Christos Drakos, the total number of outstanding fines comes to 182,213 of which 90 per cent are traffic violations (70,589) criminal offences (35,046), social insurance violations (28,889) and civil debts (23,671).

The total amount owed from the warrants and fines comes to just over €167 million. Just over €18 million is owed for traffic violations, over €27 million for criminal offences, over €81 million for social insurance violations and over €28 million for civil debts.

 

www.police.gov.cy

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