A $5,000 speeding ticket issued to a motorist by the police in July 2021 will now cost the Government hundreds of millions of dollars in refunds to motor vehicle owners and operators who, over 15 years, from 2006, had paid traffic fines that were escalated above the rates prescribed in the 1938 Road Traffic Act (RTA).

The hefty bill results from a ruling by the Constitutional Court on Friday that traffic fines imposed under the Provisional Collection of Tax (Road Traffic) Order, 2006 and the Provisional Collection of Tax (Road Traffic) Order, 2007 “are null and void and of no legal effect”.

Justices Dale Palmer, Carole Barnaby, and Tara Carr made the ruling after hearing arguments in a lawsuit filed by Maurice Housen, a software engineer, who had contended that a $5,000 ticket issued to him for speeding was way above the $800 prescribed in the RTA.

Housen had — through his attorneys Gavin Goffe, Matthew Royal, and Jahmar Clarke from Myers, Fletcher and Gordon — contended that the fixed penalties for traffic offences under the original RTA were not increased by Parliament or the minister of transport as required by the law. Instead, the fines were increased by the then finance minister in 2006 and again in 2007.

The court, which heard the matter on November 16, 2023 and January 26, 2024, agreed with Housen, who had named the Attorney General and the police commissioner as first and second defendants, respectively.

The judges ruled that imposition of the fixed penalty in excess of that stated in the appendix to the Road Traffic Act, 1938 was a breach of the claimant’s constitutional right to due process enshrined in section 16(11) of the Constitution of Jamaica.

They also ordered that nominal damages in the amount of $250,000 for the constitutional breach be paid to Housen and instructed that he pay the $800 prescribed by the Act within 21 days of the court order, failing which criminal proceedings may be taken against him.

Additionally, the court ordered that drivers and owners of motor vehicles who have paid sums stated on fixed penalty notices/traffic tickets issued between June 15, 2006 and November 3, 2021, which exceed the fixed penalties prescribed in the original RTA “are entitled to a refund of the sums paid in excess, on proof of payments in excess”.

The court also granted declaratory relief to allow for the claimant and defendants to be heard on an appropriate recovery mechanism for the refunds. Both parties are to file and exchange written submissions “on or before March 12, 2024”.

While the volume of the refunds will depend to a large degree on the number of motorists who can provide proof of excess payment, an idea of the amount of money the State rakes in from traffic fines was highlighted in a Jamaica Observer report last February.

The report stated that the Government had projected to spend $450 million from traffic ticket fines on Ministry of National Security personnel, records management, ancillary services, property, general maintenance, and minor repairs of police stations.