$9m in face mask fines but no way to pay

In the past eight months, police issued over $9 million in tickets to people who were not wearing face masks or not wearing them properly, but the country is yet to collect a cent of it.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi last week said those ticketed will be able to pay their fines by May 15.

The Judiciary, in a recent advertisement, asked for interested parties to submit proposals to facilitate online payments, with a closing date for bids of May 11.

Between September 6 and May 6, a total of 9,778 tickets were issued to people for failing to wear masks, amounting to $9,778,000.

For the same period, 723 people were ticketed for other breaches of the public health regulations.

According to a breakdown by the police, the Eastern Division had the most cases of mask breaches in the for the period, with 4,301 tickets being issued. The second highest was Port of Spain, with 1,268 tickets.

On August 31, last year it became mandatory to wear a face covering in public or be fined $1,000 on first offence. Since then, no one has been able to pay their fines, owing to a flaw in the legislation.

Last week, Al-Rawi said he would ask Cabinet to give the nod for President Paula-Mae Weekes to proclaim the Electronic Payments into and out of Court Act 2018, clearing the legal stoppage.

In the past eight months, there were successive deferrals in fine payments because there was no facility to make such payments online.

Online payments became mandatory as a result of the pandemic in a bid to limit the spread of the virus.