Finland to enhance cross-border collection of traffic fines

HELSINKI, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Finland will enhance collection of traffic fines levied on foreigners who have left the country, media reported on Sunday.

Dennis Pasterstein, director of the Finnish police traffic safety center, told national broadcaster Yle that this year some 12,000 foreigners have got a traffic fine, but a large portion of the cases have not been completed as the people have not been reached.

Most of the foreign recipients of fines for 2017 are from Estonia. Finnish police will start sending letters claiming that somebody has been found speeding in Finland.

The police cannot send the fine document to another country, but the payers are told in the letters they can come to Finland to collect the order or give a Finnish address where the order can be sent to.

Pasterstein told Yle that if the a recipient of the letter does not react by a given date, a warrant will be issued and the car, the known driver or the owner of the car will be stopped when entering Finland.

Pasterstein said the aim of the new measures is to improve road safety and to make the speed camera system work on foreigners as well.

As a final alternative, the Finnish Judicial cases registration center will send a notification to another country and the fine will be collected there. This measure is possible within the EU only.

Tauno Aalto, head of enforcement at the center, told Yle that if authorities in the country accept the case, they can collect the fines. "But they will also keep the revenue. It will not be sent to Finland". Aalto said though that there are resource limits affecting how many collection requests can be sent.

Pasterstein is somewhat uncertain on how the system will work. "How many warrants will have to be written," he wondered. Enditem