Ontario motorists may be paying for tickets twice

Some Ontario drivers may have paid twice for old speeding or parking tickets, says the boss of a ticket-fighting firm.

Rolly Riopel of POINTTS — a Barrie firm that provides legal representation for people who want to fight their traffic violations — says “hundreds, maybe thousands” of Ontarians may have paid overdue traffic fines to both the province and their local municipality.

The Ontario government transferred enforcement of provincial offences to municipalities between 1999 and 2002 and many hired collection agencies to go after fines. Over a five-year period, at least 50 motorists have come into Riopel’s office to complain they had already paid the province, but were still being hounded by  municipalities.

“If you’ve got a receipt, no problem, (but) if you haven’t got a receipt, you have to pay it again,” Riopel said.

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