A Gisborne businessman has likened the Ministry of Justice to the Mafia after he was contacted out of the blue and told to pay up for two old fines that he didn't know existed.
Adrian Athy has never had a criminal conviction - but was told his property would be seized and he faced a warrant for his arrest if he didn't pay for the fines that date back nearly a decade.
Gisborne businessman Adrian Athy has been fighting the Ministry of Justice for two old fines he didn't know existed.
"I'm just very mistrustful now. There's nothing to stop them doing whatever they want," he told Newshub.
In October, Athy received an "out of the blue" text to call the Ministry of Justice immediately. He did and was told he had two outstanding fines.
"He was a bit bamboozled - he said one's 2013. I can't remember his exact wording but I could tell - on the phone - that he was a bit gobsmacked as I was," he said.
Just what the fines were for, the Ministry of Justice couldn't say. But it promised to investigate.
Athy and his partner then went on holiday - and that's when he received an email update saying a warrant had been issued to seize his property to pay the fines.
He protested. But when he returned home, the news got worse.
"I read this and I had missed the court summons because I wasn't even in town. And the next box is a warrant for arrest. That's when I rang up and said 'I don't know what's going on here' and he said 'pay it now'," he said.
But Athy argued, pay for what?
"They haven't produced a piece of paper. They haven't sent me any saying here's the old fine."
The fines totalled $280. Fearing he would be arrested and knowing he couldn't prove he'd already paid them, Athy settled the bill.
"So I didn't realize these government departments base it on Mafia old models of extortion," he said.
Turns out - one fine was a parking ticket from 2013, the other was for no warrant of fitness on a business vehicle in 2015.
New Zealand councils refer any unpaid fines to the Ministry of Justice in a bid to force people to pay via the courts. The majority are parking and traffic-related. As of June 30 2022, the closing outstanding balance for the collections unit was just over $500 million.
The Ministry of Justice has the power to summon people to court, seize goods, cancel a driver's licence and deduct money from bank accounts. Still, about 33 percent of fines are never recovered.
"It's a computer says no culture triumphing over commonsense," ACT leader David Seymour said.
"We need people who work within the public service empowered to make a commonsense call but our culture is you must follow the rules at all times, at all costs unless you are a really bad criminal, then we feel sorry for you and you can walk free."
The Ministry told Newshub that fines don't go away or 'expire' And effort is "always" made to collect the outstanding amount.
Athy has a simple message for the Ministry.
"Can I say get your shit together," he said.
