Ticket amnesty bungling

Damion Mitchell, Editor - Radio & Online

The Government could find itself facing a huge backlash and could also miss its projected $2 billion target from the traffic ticket amnesty now on because of a serious mix-up in the system.

Several motorists have complained that their names and licence numbers have been logged in the system as people with outstanding tickets although they paid their fines years ago.

How to find out if you have unpaid tickets

In several cases, they say the matters for which they are being regarded as delinquents were thrown out by the court.

This afternoon, we were unable to reach the national security minister Peter Bunting or the head of the police traffic division to explain the mix-up.

Motorists may find out if they have outstanding tickets by visiting the website of the national security ministry at "http://www.jamaicatax-online.gov.jm/Amnesty/TTAmnesty.faces

One motorist, who asked not to be named, complained that of the five offences listed against him on the national security ministry’s website, two had been thrown out by the courts.

Another motorist had a similar story.

The system lists four traffic violations against him but he says two were paid at the tax office while the other two were dismissed by the court.

One letter writer identified as S. Williams also complained that the site does not have accurate information.

“When I checked if I had outstanding tickets, I saw three tickets which I have paid,” Williams said.

“I was only checking as my co-workers have expressed concern being that they are seeing tickets outstanding which have all been paid for,” Williams said.

“It seems as if all these tickets were just uploaded in the system without anyone checking to see if they are paid or not.”

Meanwhile, a St Andrew man was bemused that the system had him owing $37,500 for seven offences, even though he cleared his tickets years ago.

damion.mitchell@gleanerjm.com