KINGSTON, Jamaica- Member of Parliament for St Catherine South, Fitz Jackson, has warned against any appearance of the state seeking to validate or indemnify itself from having to make restitution in the case where motorists had for nearly 15 years, been charged higher penalties for traffic breaches than was allowed by law.

Jackson was speaking Friday as the House of Representatives debated and passed the Road Traffic Amendment Act 2021 to make provision for the higher penalties that have been in place illegally since 2006. 

The matter is now before the court after a motorist, Maurice Housen, brought a claim against the attorney general and the commissioner of police citing that the excessive penalties have been illegally applied.

They were implemented based on Provisional Tax Orders signed by then Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies in 2006 and 2007. Such Orders usually last for six months meaning that successive administrations have wrongfully presided over a system where significantly higher fines were applied to traffic tickets issued by the police for a decade-and-a-half. For example, a traffic ticket that attracted a fine of $800 in early 2006, moved to $5,000 by December that year.

On Wednesday, Supreme Court Judge Sonia Bertram Linton granted an injunction effectively blocking the police from continuing to issue these fixed penalty tickets. While a class action suit is in the making and a trial date not set until 2023 in addition to the new Road Traffic Act that was passed in 2018 not yet implemented, government revenues were set to take a massive hit. This, as the Administration had projected to collect up to $225 million in road traffic fines this fiscal year.

During his contribution to the debate, Jackson argued that the fines that were imposed prior to Wednesday’s court action, and prior to the passage of the Bill on Friday, which were over and above what the Order provided, made them illegal.

“That is what I am surmising (and) if it is the case that those fines were collected from motorists without the legal provisions to do so, it would appear to me that the fines were collected without the legal provision so to do and they would therefore be collected illegally,” Jackson stated.

“If the fines therefore were collected illegally, we can’t use the power of the Parliament to legitimise the extraction of funds from persons that were illegally collected.”

Continuing, he said “I believe that the only rationale, reasonable thing to do is to having recognised a failure, administratively (and) legislatively; to make those fines legal, the only responsible and respectful and morally plausible thing to do is to arrange a refund to those persons of the difference between what the maximum fines provided for then (2006) as against what they pay now”.

Jackson told his colleagues that “If we fail to do that we’re explicitly saying to Jamaicans if you do something illegal, it’s not all that bad, it can be made right because the government is doing that, the state is doing that”.

At this point Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte rose on a point of order and reminded Jackson that the matter was now before the courts.

“And so while I appreciate some concerns that are being raised, I would ask that you bear that in mind,” Malahoo Forte said.

Jackson said he noted the comments made by the attorney general but said he nonetheless wanted to “complete making the point about the morality, the correctness, the fairness, the reasonableness,”of the matter.

While judgment in the matter has been reserved, the development forced the House of Representatives to convene an extraordinary meeting Friday morning to address what National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang said was necessary to maintain law and order on the nation’s roads. However, Manchester North West Member of Parliament, Mikael Phillips, contended that the rush to convene a House sitting on a Friday was to protect government revenues and therefore not that urgent.

Ordinarily the House meets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and in some cases on Thursdays. The Speaker of the House, Marisa Dalrymple- Philibert had to give written permission for the House to meet this morning in order not to breach the Standing Orders.

The Senate is presently debating the Bill.