AG To Police: Outstanding Tickets Alone Don’t Justify Impounding Vehicles, Ranks Must Identify Actual Offender

By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News |

GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — Police officers have no statutory authority to automatically impound a vehicle simply because records show unpaid or outstanding traffic tickets linked to the registration plate, particularly when the individual currently behind the wheel was not the driver who committed the alleged infraction, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, has clarified.

Addressing growing public outrage and motorist complaints during his weekly live commentary programme, Issues in the News, the Attorney General intervened to halt arbitrary roadside seizures, outlining the strict procedural boundaries established by Parliament under the modernized traffic ticketing framework.

Nandlall made it clear that the electronic and paper ticketing system was designed specifically to decriminalize routine roadside stops and avoid unnecessary physical detentions of drivers or seizures of private property. Instead, the statutory mechanism requires law enforcement to serve notices and pursue individual offenders through the Magistrate’s Court, rather than subjecting uninvolved drivers to roadside vehicle confiscations.

The Mischief of the Law: Tickets Target Drivers, Not Property

Attorney General Nandlall emphasized that traffic enforcement must never cross the line into arbitrary property deprivation:

• Separating Driver from Vehicle: Nandlall pointed out that vehicles are frequently shared among family members, commercial fleet employees, or rental clients. When an officer conducts a routine stop, an outstanding ticket flagged against a license plate cannot be transferred onto the present driver unless that specific person was the documented offender.
• Streamlining Justice Outside the Cell: The statutory architecture behind the ticketing system was conceived to relieve court congestion and eliminate police station detentions for summary traffic infractions.
• The Option to Pay Without Court: When properly issued, a ticket grants the alleged offender a lawful window to discharge their liability through designated payment mechanisms without ever entering a courtroom or having their vehicle seized.

“A person who is served with this… you don’t have to go to the court,” Nandlall explained, highlighting that the system was created to provide convenience and compliance rather than roadside intimidation.

Procedural Due Process: Summoning the Actual Offender

Where an outstanding ticket remains unresolved and an unrelated individual is driving the vehicle, Nandlall outlined the lawful steps police ranks are mandated to take:

• Judicial Summons Instead of Seizure: If the registered owner or person operating the car demonstrates that someone else was operating the vehicle at the time of the violation, police cannot hold the vehicle as collateral.
• Charging the True Offender: The investigating ranks must lay the facts before a Magistrate, who will then issue a formal summons requiring the identified driver to appear in court.

“If that person is not the driver… [the actual] driver will be charged,” the Attorney General affirmed, reminding police officers that liability is personal and cannot be arbitrarily assessed against whoever happens to be behind the wheel during a subsequent stop.

Lawful Service: Three Methods of Statutory Notice

Addressing procedural claims by motorists that they were unaware tickets had been issued against their vehicles, Nandlall highlighted the multi-channel notification architecture prescribed by law:

• Multiple Notification Channels: The legislation explicitly authorizes three distinct mechanisms to ensure drivers receive notice of traffic penalties:
  1. Personal In-Hand Service by an authorized traffic rank.
  2. Registered Post dispatched directly to the registered owner’s recorded address.
  3. Electronic Transmission, including email and mobile notifications.

“The law then sets out another set… spoke about that already,” Nandlall noted, urging police ranks to follow statutory notice requirements rather than taking shortcuts through vehicle seizures.

The Attorney General’s legal directive provides crucial clarity for the motoring public and operational guidance for the Guyana Police Force Traffic Department, reaffirming that traffic enforcement must respect due process, protect personal property rights, and operate within the limits of the law.