New South Wales Consolidated Acts

FINES ACT 1996 - SECT 101

101 Unpaid fines may be written off

(1) After a fine enforcement order is made and before a community correction order or community service order is issued under Division 5 in the matter, an application to have the fine written off may be made to the Commissioner by the fine defaulter.

(1A) The Commissioner may, on the application of a fine defaulter or at the Commissioner's own discretion, write off, in whole or in part, an unpaid fine--

(a) if satisfied that, due to any or all of the financial, medical or personal circumstances of the fine defaulter--

(i) the fine defaulter does not have sufficient means to pay the fine and is not likely to have sufficient means to pay the fine, and

(ii) civil enforcement action has not been or is unlikely to be successful in satisfying the fine, and

(iii) the fine defaulter is not suitable to be subject to a community service order under Division 5, or

(b) in accordance with guidelines issued under section 120.

(1B) The Commissioner must write off, in whole or in part, an unpaid fine if directed to do so by the Hardship Review Board.

(2) Guidelines issued under section 120 are to extend to fine defaulters who do not have the means to pay the fine or sufficient property for civil enforcement action and who are not suitable to undertake work under a community service order.

(3) Any part of an unpaid fine that is written off is taken to have been paid for the purpose of cancelling enforcement action under this Act.

(4) Despite subsection (3), any part of an unpaid fine that is written off under this section may be reinstated and enforcement action may be recommenced by the Commissioner in respect of the fine defaulter at any time within 5 years after it is written off if--

(a) a further fine enforcement order is made against the fine defaulter, or

(b) the Commissioner is satisfied that the fine defaulter has sufficient means to pay the fine, that enforcement action is likely to be successful in satisfying the fine or that the fine defaulter is suitable to be subject to a community service order.

(5) When writing off a fine defaulter's unpaid fine under this section, the Commissioner may write off, in whole or in part, an unenforced unpaid fine that the fine defaulter is liable to pay, on the grounds specified in subsection (1A).

(6) If the Commissioner writes off an unenforced unpaid fine under subsection (5), the fine defaulter is taken to have paid the amount payable under the penalty notice for the purposes of the Road Transport Act 2013 , section 31(2)(b).

(7) Subsection (4) extends to an unenforced unpaid fine written off under subsection (5).

(8) If enforcement action is commenced against a fine defaulter in relation to an unenforced unpaid fine that is reinstated under subsection (4), notice of a fine enforcement order is taken to have been served on the fine defaulter when the unenforced unpaid fine was written off.

(9) In this section--

"unenforced unpaid fine" means an unpaid fine in relation to which a fine enforcement order has not been made, and includes an unpaid amount payable under a penalty notice.