Filenews 7 December 2021 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
What the Police did not do in the past was done in 38 days. It executed 6,558 fine warrants with more than one million euros collected.
Following the Auditor General's report last October according to which in December 2020, 284,443 warrants were pending at the Police for execution, with 91,450 debtors, with the value of the warrants reaching €284.4 million, two meetings were held where the recovery process was changed. In particular, the Minister of Justice convened meetings, appointed a responsible officer and it was decided to give a boost to those who owe large sums of money and to those who are known but declared not to be located.
According to data from the Police, from October 25, when the new instructions were given to the warrant collection officers, until December 3rd, a total of 6,558 warrants issued by the courts were executed, relating to the amount of €1,136,859, an amount that is not insignificant considering that previously the amounts collected were much less. Most of the warrants were executed in the Limassol district where during the above period 2,285 warrants were considered as enforceable and the amount of €295,884 was collected. It is followed by Nicosia with 1,562 warrants executed and the amount collected reaching €372,674. The third district in execution of warrants was Larnaca which records 1,174 enforceable warrants for the amount of €185,491, followed by Paphos, with 1,084 warrants executed and flowed into the state coffers of €186,685. The fifth province is Famagusta with 364 warrants for the amount of €74,403 and the last due to population is the province of Morfou where 89 warrants were executed and €21,720 were collected.
As was told to "F", the Police will intensify its efforts to execute as many pending warrants as possible and will continue to turn its attention to people who have the ability to pay the fines and until today for various reasons managed to avoid doing so. According to the findings of the Audit Office, there were among the debtors, police officers, court employees or civil servants who owed various amounts and no effort was made to pay them. Also among the politically exposed persons against whom warrants for the payment of a fine were pending were three MPs.
Moreover, measures are also taken at airports so that if a debtor travels abroad, it is checked whether fines are pending against him and he is required to pay them before he departs.
