Metro Police - $$!@#!@#

requiem said:
So, today I get stopped at a roadblock and I'm taken to a combi where I am told to pay my outstanding fines or I will not be allowed to leave.

I ask them to show me the fines and I will gladly pay, as I have no knowledge of any fines outstanding.

They give me a printout with an AARTO reference number, Infringement date, my car registration number make and model and outstanding amount per fine.

I ask for the actual fines and I am told "You can go fetch them from the post office like you should have".

Anyway, I paid the R875 and went and looked and lo and behold there are 3 actual fines over the past year but I never received any information on them. The AARTO website shows a blurry picture of my car that is CSI'd into a perfectly clear number plate. I can't see who is driving.

Now obviously I, or whomsoever was driving my car shouldn't speed, but this feels like extortion. How the **** can I prove that I wasn't speeding on a random road in February when I am only informed of it in November?

This really is frustrating. Anyone else experience this?
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What the actual ****?
 
Neuk_ said:
Arg :rolleyes: I just checked mine, one case finalised fine in 2015 for a car I sold in 2015 and then two fines for a car have never owned in a municipality I don't live in and haven't been to with a car of mine in many years. Now I'll have to contact them and find out WTF they have done, I hope it is simply a PayCity issue.
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It looks like someone has cloned the last licence number of a car that I bought in late September :rolleyes: I hope the Cape Town traffic department isn't as useless as the Johannesburg one, it is pretty clear the fines aren't related to me at all.
 
MirageF1 said:
Was pulled over few years ago in UK by the Police pretending to do roadside checks.
There were a number of marked police cars parked along the side so I assumed it was just a major road block to apprehend unlicensed drivers, uninsured vehicles, criminals, etc

After handing my driving license over to one of the officers, he walked away and I waited expecting him to return and declare all in order and for me to proceed along my merry way...

Part 2 coming up in a while....stay tuned.
That turned out to be costliest road side stop I ever made in my life.
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Oh come on, where's the rest of the story?!

HunterNW said:
What ?? There's scams in the UK ?
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People are very trusting over here... Something that we would look at saying WTF, they would just accept.
 
Yeah I won't pay, screw that. Holding you is also against the law, without a warrant or without proper cause to do so. Field day in court.
 
requiem said:
So, today I get stopped at a roadblock and I'm taken to a combi where I am told to pay my outstanding fines or I will not be allowed to leave.

I ask them to show me the fines and I will gladly pay, as I have no knowledge of any fines outstanding.

They give me a printout with an AARTO reference number, Infringement date, my car registration number make and model and outstanding amount per fine.

I ask for the actual fines and I am told "You can go fetch them from the post office like you should have".

Anyway, I paid the R875 and went and looked and lo and behold there are 3 actual fines over the past year but I never received any information on them. The AARTO website shows a blurry picture of my car that is CSI'd into a perfectly clear number plate. I can't see who is driving.

Now obviously I, or whomsoever was driving my car shouldn't speed, but this feels like extortion. How the **** can I prove that I wasn't speeding on a random road in February when I am only informed of it in November?

This really is frustrating. Anyone else experience this?
Click to expand...
send a tweet to Justice Project -


While many traffic law enforcement authorities claim that they do not attempt to coerce (force) payment of traffic fines, little could be further from the truth. There is nothing unlawful about informing motorists that they have outstanding traffic fines
It is however unlawful to attempt to coerce payment, through actions and/or threats.

  • Retaining a person’s driving licence until they pay, or the traffic officer abandons trying to force him or her to pay is tantamount to unlawful seizure – without a warrant or “probable cause” that the driving licence card in question is a counterfeit document.
  • Preventing a person from leaving the site is tantamount to unlawful or false arrest because that person’s right to freedom of movement is infringed.
  • Telling a person that he or she faces arrest if he does not pay, in the absence of a valid warrant of arrest, is tantamount to extortion because it constitutes a threat designed to extract monies.
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I also tend to avoid roadblocks.

I don't drink or have anything outstanding, but because I don't want to have the schlepp of them trying to solicit a bribe. Car is also roadworthy, no bald tyres or the such.

You never know when you'll be stuck with a couple of crabapples.
 
The_Librarian said:
I also tend to avoid roadblocks.

I don't drink or have anything outstanding, but because I don't want to have the schlepp of them trying to solicit a bribe. Car is also roadworthy, no bald tyres or the such.

You never know when you'll be stuck with a couple of crabapples.
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Excellent move. I used to avoid them too when I lived in JHB, because of past experiences of them trying to solicit bribes and stuff. It's bribe-block season so best to find a WhatsApp group that will help alert you to where their next bribe solicitation event will be held.
 
Interestingly.

We live in Mnandi. Olievenhoutbosch is on the other side of the N14.

I use the R114 every day.

When there's road blocks or traffic police busy in Olieven, the Olieven traffic all goes on the R114, which makes it so congested, it looks like as if the whole of PTA is trying to fit on that small road... which makes for some scary travelling especially when Olieven drivers do not respect the rules of the road, but push in whenever they can see a gap. :mad:
 
Hemi300c said:
Didn't JMPD declare all past fines invalid not so long ago because of their delivery system was proven illegal?
Surely this would include the OP's earlier fines.
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Sauce, what was the cutoff date for that?
 
I hate the metro police/SAPS in general, useless to the core. They more concerned about making money instead of doing real policing. Taxis, idiots on the highway with bicycles, walking and pushing those 'carts' they use for recycling. Oh and another new thing is, people jogging on the highway.
:mad:
 
Hemi300c said:
Didn't JMPD declare all past fines invalid not so long ago because of their delivery system was proven illegal?
Surely this would include the OP's earlier fines.
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Yep, you should have replied that you received no legal notification of those fines, and they did not arrive by registered mail as they are supposed to according to the act.
 
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