Drivers who don't pay their parking fines will be refused licences at TCD under a modernised ticketing system.

Premier Ewart Brown yesterday said people clock up to $400,000 in unpaid fines every year partly because of a process relying too heavily on human resources. The Premier and Transport Minister said a new automated process will make it more difficult to evade paying fines, and those that still manage to avoid paying will not be issued licences at TCD so they risk being caught on Bermuda's EVR system.

Fines will also be increased as part of the Traffic Offences Procedure Amendment Act, said Dr. Brown, with incentives to pay promptly. The standard parking fine goes up from $50 to $75 if paid within 14 days; $100 after 14 days but before a trial date is set; $150 on summary conviction in court. Presenting the bill in the House of Assembly yesterday, Dr. Brown said: "It is anticipated that the increased penalty and the obvious discount will act as an incentive for prompt payment of fines in the future.

"And if this is not incentive enough, the threat of not being able to relicense a vehicle should serve as an added incentive."

Dr. Brown said under the existing system traffic wardens issue tickets with hand-held devices, which then have to be followed up with a summons to Magistrates' Court.

He said this requires a "considerable amount of human resources" to process thousands of notices that go unpaid every week. "Notwithstanding the historic failure to pay parking fines which results in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines uncollected each year, steps have been taken to address this issue," he said.

He said the Police's courts liaison unit has taken over administration of the ticketing process to prepare thousands of summonses and organise postal service. Six members of staff are employed to catch up on the backlog of summonses dating back to June last year, while parking ticket courts have been set up on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The bill was approved, although a number of MPs raised questions in the House. Patricia Gordon-Pamplin of the United Bermuda Party asked how many offences people commit when they park illegally for long periods of time, and her colleague Grant Gibbons asked how much has been racked up in unpaid fines over the years.

UBP leader Kim Swan said the new initiative wouldn't be "Mr. Catchem" for the millions of dollars still outstanding, while Mark Pettingill of the Bermuda Democratic Alliance said having to pay fines in order to get a licence was a big incentive.