Man who received $46 speeding ticket declared bankrupt after fine becomes almost $20,000 instead
A man who refused to pay a measly $46 speeding fine has ended up racking thousands of dollars worth of debt.
In 2016, Peter Prescott received a speeding ticket ordering him to pay $46 (translated to USD) for driving 64km/h in a 50km/h zone. However, he failed to pay the ticket and insisted that he wasn't driving the car and the car in question wasn't his.
After Prescott didn't pay up, the matter was taken to court and when he didn't turn up to the hearing, Prescott was fined another $46 and was told to pay $17.50 in court fees.
Fast forward two years and Prescott, from New Zealand, still hadn't paid the fines he was facing. He tried to appeal them but the appeal was unsuccessful, sparking him to seek a judicial review of that decision.
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The request for the review was struck out, The New Zealand Herald reports, and Prescott was slapped with a $4,061 fine in court costs.
And his debts didn't stop there. Prescott was determined to not have to cough up the cash so proceeded to try have the High Court recall the judgement. His attempt was in vain however, and Prescott then tried to have the Court of Appeal have the fined deferred.
This too was dismissed, and an additional $3,481 was added to his already rising debts.
A further $1,450 was then added to his seemingly never-ending bill, after Prescott tried and failed to take the whole debacle to the Supreme Court.
In 2020, Prescott was handed a bankruptcy notice by police after failing to pay the $4,061 he owed. Of course, Prescott wasn't taking this lying down and he attempted to appeal this as well. It backfired though, and he was ordered to pay an additional $6,962. Ouch.
By September 2021, he owed $15,665 to police and Prescott was officially declared bankrupt a year later.
However, Prescott's fight didn't end there and last month he tried to have his bankruptcy annulled. He claimed that his bankruptcy hearing was unfair because 'a hearing deficiency that prevented him from fully participating in the hearing'.
And, it may not come as a surprise, but this didn't work for Prescott either and a judge ruled that he couldn't find anything wrong at the original 2022 bankruptcy hearing that reached the standard to annul the order.
Now, Prescott is facing yet more fines after his latest unsuccessful appeal.
Long story short, folks: pay your speeding tickets.
Topics: New Zealand, Court, Money
Niamh Shackleton