To say the Unit Fines System is becoming unworkable is to understate the views of those who apply it.
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He was hit for a cool 24,200.
No doubt xenophobes among us will app aud this result on the grounds that foreign drivers caught breaking the law in our Sceptered Isle deserve all they get. They are wrong, of course, but what these two cases really highlight is how muck of a lottery the Unit Fines System has become. in the Crewe case the unit fines were set between 24 and £15 per unit, based on information supplied by the drivers. In Coventry the unit level was near the £40 maximum. Could the circumstances really have been that different? To say the Unit Fines System is fast becoming unworkable is to understate the views of those who have to appiy it. The Magistrates Association has already made representation to the Government to have it changed.
Things have come to an ugly pass when drivers hit with a fixed penalty fine are encouraged not to fight it for fear of losing any appeal and then being clobbered under the Unit Fines System which could leave them hundreds, if not thousands of pounds worse off—and to hell with the fact that they might be innocent. The principle of Unit Fines—that fines should reflect a miscreant's ability to pay them— is difficult to dispute. The problem is it's impossible to apply fairly in real life. For the legal bigwigs contemplating changing the system we offer some advice from Holmes' contemporaries, Gilbert and Sullivan: "My obiect all sublime, I shall achieve in time— to let the punishment fit the crime—the punishment fit the crime..."