PG Office to seek unpaid court-ordered fines through court

Prosecutor General’s Office (PG Office) has commenced efforts to recover unpaid court-ordered fines through court. 

As per the Office, the efforts were initiated under Article 30 (a) of the Supreme Court’s regulation on providing guidelines for delivering judgments.

The regulation requires PG Office to inform the court within a period of 30 days after the expiration of the timeframe granted to the offender in the judgment to settle the fine. 

Therewith, PG Office said that they are working on submitting the details of individuals who have not paid their fines to the court through Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA).

“I do not know a final number. However, we are presently trying to identify how many such persons are there,” PG Office’s Spokesperson, Public Prosecutor Ahmed Shafeeu said.

Shafeeu said that information gathered so far indicates some individuals have not paid their court-ordered fines over criminal offenses as stipulated In their judgments.

“Basically, people are not aware that there will be consequences for not paying the fine. This is why there are so many cases like this. We do inform that this (failure to pay fine) will result in further penalty,” he had said.

PG Office said that judges have the discretion to impose heavier punishment for individuals who fail to pay their court-ordered fines – including an increment on the fine or an extra prison term.