Privacy Commissioner - Te Mana Matapono Matatapu

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Customs/Justice Fines Defaulters Alerts Programme

• Annual report
• Technical information
• System description
• Historical activity

Annual report

Purpose: To improve the enforcement of fines by identifying serious fines defaulters as they cross New Zealand borders, and to increase voluntary compliance through publicity about the programme targeted at travellers.

Year commenced: 2006

Features: Data transferred daily by online transfer.

Justice disclosure to Customs: Justice provides serious fine defaulter information for inclusion on Customs' ‘silent alerts' or ‘interception alerts' lists.

Silent alerts are created for fines defaulters who are not subject to an interception alert but have outstanding fines of $1,000 or more, and a warrant to arrest (which covers part of the outstanding fines) has been issued.

Fines defaulters who have interception alerts recorded are those where:

• any amount of reparation is owing and a warrant to arrest (which covers part of the reparation outstanding) has been issued
• court imposed fines of $5,000 or more are outstanding and a warrant to arrest (which covers part of the court imposed fines outstanding) has been issued.

Each Justice fines defaulter record disclosed includes the full name, date of birth, gender and Justice unique identifier number.

Customs disclosure to Justice: For each alert triggered, Customs supplies the full name, date of birth, gender, nationality and presented passport number, along with details about the intended or just completed travel.

2010/11 activity:

Silent alerts triggered	4,102
Individuals subject to silent alerts	1,808
Intercept alerts triggered	150
People intercepted	129
On departure	29
On arrival	113
Incorrect intercepts	18
Fines had already been paid	6
Wrong person identified by the match	12
Interception not completed	7
Fines received	$88,154
Reparation received	$101,367
Amount under a current time to pay arrangement	$71,502
Remittals/Alternative sentence imposed	$140,458

Commentary: Justice suggest the 50% increase in interception alerts triggered this year resulted from a large number of new people becoming eligible for the Collection of Fines at Airports initiative following projects to review fines defaulter records.

While actual interceptions (129) doubled from last year (64), the value of outstanding fines and reparation received is about the same. Justice suggest this is because the average amount owed by those intercepted this year ($4,839) was a lot less than the average amount owed by those intercepted last year ($15,625). Amounts under a current time to pay arrangement dropped from $397,249 (incorrectly reported as $669,609 last year) to $71,502.

As at 30 June, there were 2,888 fines defaulters who had interception alerts recorded against their names in Customs records, a slight increase over last year (2,800).

Compliance: Compliant.

Technical information 

Information matching provision	Customs and Excise Act 1996, s.280D
Year authorised	2006
Programme type	Locating people
Unique identifiers	Personal profile number Passport number
On-line transfers	Yes

System description

Each day, Justice sends Customs, by encrypted online transfer, details of serious fines defaulters for the purpose of creating "interception alerts" or "silent alerts"[1] in the Customs system (CusMod). The most serious cases attract an "interception alert", which results in the traveller being intercepted at the airport and required to pay (or make an arrangement to pay) their fine or reparation or face arrest. The other cases involve a "silent alert" which uses information about the traveller for enforcement action after their entry or (re-entry) to the country.

Fines defaulters who have interception alerts recorded in CusMod are those where:
• Either
o any amount of reparation is owing and
o a warrant to arrest has been issued and
o the warrant covers at least part of the reparation outstanding;

• Or
o court imposed fines greater or equal to $5,000 are outstanding and
o a warrant to arrest has been issued and
o the warrant covers at least part of these court imposed fines.

Silent alerts are created for fines defaulters not subject to an interception alert but meeting the following criteria:

• fines equal to or greater than $1,000 are outstanding and
• a warrant to arrest has been issued and
• the warrant covers at least part of these outstanding fines.

For each fines defaulter, Justice supply Customs with the following information:

Person profile number	Family name	Given names
Date of birth	Gender	Alert type

As an individual passes through the border, a Customs official scans their passport into the CusMod system. The CusMod matching programme converts details from the passport into an alpha-numeric code for matching against alerts. Alerts are generated for "A" matches, which require a 91-100% match outcome based on a weighting system. For instance, date of birth and family name each has a percentage attributed to it which add up to 75% towards the overall weighting score.

Matches triggering an interception alert are directed to a Customs official who notifies NZ Police. A police officer conducts an interview with the individual to confirm their identity and that the individual is the same person as the alert, whether outstanding fines exist, and if a warrant to arrest remains in force.

Fines and warrant to arrest information is obtained by phoning the Justice Contact Centre. If the Police are satisfied that the individual is not the person on the alert, they are left to continue on their journey and a report is filed.

If the facts are verified, the individual, through a phone call with a Justice official, is given an opportunity to pay the outstanding amount or to enter into an arrangement to pay. If no payment is made, or arrangement entered into, the Police have discretion to execute the arrest warrant, in which case the individual will be stopped from travelling and brought before a court.

After an interception, the alert is usually removed from CusMod in the next daily update.

Silent alert information is not displayed to Customs staff but is notified electronically to Justice for potential use in the related INZ/Justice Fines Defaulters Tracing Programme. Silent alerts do not result in individuals having their travel interrupted.

Historical activity

Customs/Justice Interception Alerts Results 19/09/2006 - 30/06/2010

	2006/07	2007/08	2008/09	2009/10
Silent alerts triggered	1,294	1,554	1,821	2,035
Individuals subject to silent alerts	979	1,146	976	1,062
Intercept alerts triggered	87	105	79	97
People intercepted[2]	71	89	65	64
On departure	19	26	12	14
On arrival	52	63	55	50
Incorrect intercepts	4	9	6	17
Fines had already been paid	1	-	1	1
Wrong person identified by the match	3	9	5	16
Interception not completed	-	2	4	16
Fines received	$162,523	$89,975	$106,465	$76,256
Reparation received	$107,307	$127,308	$121,877	$116,241
Amount under a current time to pay arrangement	$48,982	$116,818	$212,614	$669,609
Remittals/Alternative sentence imposed	$37,496	$84,812	$115,759	$61,868

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[1] Silent alert notifications are sent to Justice for use in the INZ/Justice Fines Defaulters Tracing Programme.
[2] The number of alerts on arrival or departure will not necessarily equal the total number of people intercepted as a person can trigger multiple alerts in a given period.