Authorities take new path on unpaid fines

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Wesson officials are cracking down on delinquent fines with the aim of recovering nearly $300,000 in unpaid money.

     Thus far, seven people have been arrested since an amnesty period offered by the city in October ended.

     Two arrested over the weekend remained in jail Tuesday morning, while five arrested the weekend before paid the fines they owed, said Wesson Chief of Police Chad O’Quinn.

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     Approximately 500 people owe late and unpaid fines to the city, said Wesson Mayor Alton Shaw. These fines range from relatively minor, at $30, to more than $6,000.

     The fines stem from a number of different offenses, including traffic citations, speeding tickets and contempt of court charges as well as much more serious offenses, O’Quinn said.

     Law enforcement wants people to realize they can’t outwait their charges or any penalties they owe.

     “Some of these people think after so many years it just goes away, but the fines never go away,” said O’Quinn.

     Shaw also believes most of the people in question are simply ignoring the problem.

     “It’s not that people don’t know or that they can’t pay, it’s that they choose not to,” Shaw said.

     Wesson police officers have been serving warrants about two weeks now to those with delinquent fines.

     “We’ll be doing that on the weekends,” O’Quinn said.

     All the fines are at least six months delinquent and the vast majority date from the last 10 years, Shaw said.

     Most of the targeted people reside in surrounding counties, Shaw said, but some could live farther away.

     The names of everyone with outstanding fines owed to the city will soon be published on the city’s website, said Shaw.

     Anyone that knows they owe fees should contact Wesson City Hall and pay their fines, officials advised. An amnesty period in the month of October allowed people to pay the original fine owed without any additional penalties, but there’s now no way to evade the additional costs that will accompany the original fines.

     However, it’s still to a person’s benefit to voluntarily step forward, Shaw said. If law enforcement finds a person first, they’ll be arrested and may spend the weekend in jail.

     “We’re not trying to cause anyone any embarrassment,” O’Quinn said. “We’re just trying to collect the money.”

     Everyone with outstanding fees owed to the city should have had their driver’s license suspended, Shaw said.

     Some may have slipped through the cracks, however. So O’Quinn warned that if someone believes they owe fines, they shouldn’t breathe too easy if their license remains valid.

     Shaw said Wesson authorities have been looking into the problem since about the middle of the year.

     “We’ve known this was an issue and we’ve been looking for ways to address it,” Shaw said.

     Though it may take awhile, the mayor pledged authorities will continue to pursue the matter until the city has collected its money.

     “We’ll do this until we exhaust the list or determined they’ve moved so far off it’s not feasible or they’re dead,” Shaw said.