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Spend a day on social media, or peering out of the window, and it’s clear that not everybody is playing ball with regards to the lockdown rules and regulations.

You might think that the worst that can happen is some judging looks from a neighbour, a snide comment on the local Facebook neighbourhood group, and a fine that ranges from R500 to R5 000, but that’s not exactly true.

When you pay that fine, or what is really called an admission of guilt fine, you’re actually doing yourself a serious disservice.

TimesLIVE spoke with a number of legal representatives, starting with Adv Paul Jorgensen:

“People believe they are governed by the [lockdown] regulations. But the constitution and the applicable laws still apply,” he said.

“Paying admission of guilt fines is paying away all your constitutional rights. I understand that people just want to get it over and done with quickly, but it is not like paying, for example, a parking ticket. If they take your fingerprints, you will get a criminal record.”

That’s right – a criminal record.

If you don’t pay the fine, you will then be required to make a court appearance, where you can contest the charges. As it turns out, the prosecution is often unwilling to put the case on the roll.

In other words, the charges are dropped. Here’s attorney Jacques Botha:

“Paying admission of guilt fines is dangerous. You can get a criminal record. With the stroke of pen, law-abiding citizens are being turned into criminals.”

Attorney Vumani Mthembu laid it out clearly:

“When you are granted police bail your fingerprints will be entered into their database to show that you have a pending case against you. You are still expected to appear in court to defend your case, which, depending on the outcome, will result in a criminal record or not.”

Mthembu said an admission of guilt fine was different in that an alleged offender would not be given a date to appear in court.

“When you pay an admission of guilt, you are pleading guilty for the offence committed. Your fingerprints will be taken and entered into the police database, and you will automatically have a criminal record.”

Sure, you’ve avoided that court case, but you have a criminal record to show for it.

There is hope, though, that this ridiculous situation will be addressed. Deputy minister of justice John Jeffery said he was aware that the admission of guilt fine would attract a criminal record, and spoke of an amendment in the Judicial Matters Bill.

Again from TimesLIVE:

“The issue of admission of guilt attracting a criminal record is something we have been wanting to address and something that is going to be in the Judicial Matters Bill and should have been brought if we didn’t have Covid-19 or had elections,” he said.

Jeffery said the idea would be for most admission of guilt matters not to attract a criminal record because people felt pressured to pay the fines not realising that they would get a record which would affect their rights.

Jeffery later told TimesLIVE: “Basically, we want the minister to have power to determine what crimes attract [a] criminal record [when an admission of guilt fine is paid].

Hopefully, sense prevails, the amendments are made, and thousands of South Africans who weren’t aware of the consequences of paying said fines don’t end up with a record.

Perhaps err on the side of caution, though, and don’t pay the admission of guilt fine.

It’s one thing trading cigarettes for booze on the local WhatsApp group, but quite another to have a criminal record.

[sources:timeslive&timeslive]