Faulty fines starting with 02-4099.
Strange Looking AARTO fines that start with 02-4099.

UPDATE

According to an article which appeared in the Sandton Chronicle and Citizen Newspapers on 29 & 30 September 2010 respectively, Director Gerneke of the JMPD has stated:

“We acknowledge the illegality of these fines as the infringement notices were indecipherable and will therefore be cancelled.”

JPSA has been contacted by Caxtons to provide clarity on how those who have paid these infringement notices can get their money back and we have subsequently put the AARTO 25 “application for refund of monies” form online for members of the public to complete and submit to the RTMC.

AARTO 25 “application for refund of monies”

This form should be submitted directly to the address on the form and not to the JMPD since the RTMC would have been the recipient of the funds. Please remember to attach your PROOF OF PAYMENT to the form or they will simply mess you around.

Whether these get refunded or not is yet to be seen and it is extremely likely that this is going to be the subject of a possible "Class Action" since we have our doubts whether they will be timeously - if at all. Taking money is a talent of the JMPD. Refunding it is certainly not.

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Please read our media release below and then follow the instructions for dealing with these.

MEDIA RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TO: ALL NEWS EDITORS
SUBJECT: STRANGE LOOKING AARTO FINES
ISSUED BY: JUSTICE PROJECT SOUTH AFRICA

Following the illegal issue of numerous AARTO infringement notices by standard surface mail, many of which bore tripled fine values when issued to juristic persons, now apparently due to an “IT glitch”, recently received AARTO 03 infringement notices starting with 02-4099 have been received by many motorists bearing undecipherable information.

The problem appears to have been caused by incorrect data field mappings that cause the wrong field information to be imprinted on the notices and includes:

• No city/town under the location heading.
• No general location under the infringement particulars.
• Speed readings = names of jpeg images – not the speed measured.
• Penalty = blank.
• Discount = Rand amount of the full penalty amount (i.e. 100% discount).
• Discounted amount = 0 (i.e. NOTHING PAYABLE)
• Charge Type = blank.
• Demerit points = Minor infringement (For your warning. Not applicable yet)
• Issuing authority = R0.00
• Camera operator = R0.00
• Infrastructure number = JMPD.

In addition, no details on these notices appear on payfine.co.za which comes back saying “no records found”. This has added to the angst of many members of the public since it is highly unusual for payfine.co.za not to have notices issued by the JMPD on their database – even though it is not unusual for no photographs or pertinent details of the alleged infringement (or offence as payfine calls it) to be displayed – even on very old notices.

People who have contacted aartoenquiries@rtmc.co.za have in many instances been told to fill in an AARTO 08 representation form in reply to their queries.

Many people who have contacted JPSA to enquire about these notices have suspected that some kind of criminal activity was taking place but JPSA assures the public that this is not the case. We immediately addressed the issue with the acting registrar of AARTO on Monday 16 August 2010, and followed this up with a phone call on Tuesday morning but have heard nothing since.

According to the considered opinion of Attorney Anton Burger, these errors nullify these notices and the reissue of them would not be legal since “Ultra Vires” (beyond the powers of the authorities due to delegated powers or requisite procedures have not been observed) would apply. "Functus Officio" which means "having performed his office" and is a legal term used to describe a public official, court, governing body, statute, or other legal instrument that retains no legal authority because his or its duties and functions have been completed. The issuing authority should have checked that the notices were correctly issued prior to sending them out.

JPSA agrees that the correct procedure may well be to complete an AARTO 08 representation form but that would be under the proviso that the electronic form available from the "official AARTO website" of the RTMC could actually be completed BUT it simply cannot as it rejects the notice number when it comes time to print it.

We have now provided a form that works for you to submit and we simply ask that you be so kind as to make a R50 donation to our organisation into the following banking account for using this form (instructions appear below):

Account Name: Justice Project South Africa
Short Name: JPSA
Bank: First National Bank
Branch: Randpark Ridge
Branch Code: 255955
Account Number: 62230171671

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILLING IN THE AARTO 08 FORM THAT WORKS FOR THE JMPD's NEW NUMBERS

• Download the form below and fill it in fully.
• We have filled in the representation portion for you. Do not change anything in this section.
• Print the form out.
• Sign and date it.
• Have it attested by a commissioner of oaths.
• Send it via registered post to the address on the form which is:
  AARTO - Representations
  Private Bag X125
  Marshalltown
  2107

The form is available here.

JPSA is glad to have been of service to you. Please play fair and make a donation for our efforts. We are not monitoring who uses this form but will know how many of you do play fair and we thank you in advance for doing so.

NEW! Should you wish JPSA to handle the submission of your representation form for you, please complete it as per normal but send it to us at PO Box 695, Henley on Klip, 1962 via registered mail. Please clearly mark the envelope REPRESENTATION and we will take these forms directly to the RTIA (Road Traffic Infringement Agency) in batches on a weekly basis. We will levy a charge of R80 per form for this service.

FORMS THAT ARE AVAILABLE HERE

Just so that there can be no confusion, any forms that are made available on this site are made available as a service to alleged offenders who cannot use the forms provided by the RTMC due to checksums that are contained in their forms which prevent certain infringement notice numbers from being entered.

The JMPD have recently been assigned new infringement notice number arrays which are not supported in the forms provided by the RTMC. We ask for a donation of R50 if you want to use these forms but do not demand it.