Police to nab defiant foreign motorists

KUALA LUMPUR: Police will soon launch a major operation to enforce action against errant foreign motorists who have evaded settling traffic summonses amounting to hundreds of millions ringgit for the past 14 years.
Federal traffic police chief SAC Datuk Mohd Fuad Abdul Latiff said between 2000 and last year, a total of 838,510 summonses issued to foreign motorists remain unpaid.
Singaporeans, with a total of 313,661 unpaid summonses, comprised the largest chunk (37.5%) followed by those from Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia.
Mohd Fuad said these errant foreigners face the risk of arrest over the unsettled summonses if they are are still here or when they next enter the country.
"We have obtained a total of 82,745 arrest warrants against these foreigners, and advise them to pay up quickly to avoid being arrested," he said, adding that the crackdown will be launched this month.
"They cannot plead ignorance when we detain them as the onus is on them to find out the status of their summonses."
Federal traffic police will seek the help of the Immigration Department to track down offenders.
Mohd Fuad said if detained, foreigners will need to have a local person stand bail for them to secure their release, before facing court action the next working day.
He said police will also be submitting a proposal to the government to have records of all traffic summonses issued to foreigners fed into a centralised system linked to the Immigration Department.
With this system in place, foreign motorists and their vehicles will be disallowed from leaving the country until they pay up their fines.
"We warmly welcome foreign visitors but please respect the laws of our land. Are we not subjected to their laws when we are in their country?" asked Mohd Fuad.
He said overall, about 18.5 million or 37% of nearly 50 million summonses issued between 2004 and 2013, have yet to be settled.
A total of 1,705,275 arrest warrants obtained by police against errant Malaysian motorists have yet to be served on them.
Both local and foreign motorists may check if they have outstanding summonses and make payments online at www.myeg.com.my or www.rilek.com.my.
Payments can also be made at post offices, district police headquarters, selected Road Transport Department branches, Maybank ATMs and Urban Transformation Centres (UTC).