I-Cube advantage   Company Profile         Facial        IA      OCR  I-Cube Biometric Selector   RECOGNITION  3D FACIAL   faceit  faceit_gen  Discovery    Facial        ID SDK  Verification Facial Verification linked to a PIN CODE   2D biometric facial identification solutions   System Design   Value Prop.   Access control   FRVT    FACEIT      LFA      Accuracy      Technical SPEC      Review  Solutions Roundup  Facial USES  Request Facial CD  APPLICATIONS  SVS CASINO SOLUTIONS  Facial Proposal   I-Cube stadium biometric solution Vertical market application (Casinos, Stadiums, Retail and Mines) REFERENCE SITES:   GENERAL ARTICLES   Clever cameras have your record   facts, features and benefits of Face recognition   Technical explanation of the HNeT technology   License Plate Recognition (LPR) and Facial Verification FOR ESTATE - minQ   PROPOSALS   NESTLE facial OPTIONS:  PDF (1 MB)   Facial VERIFICATION - Card linked to Face presentation PDF (2 MB)   nterest Form Application       USER MANUALS     Start UP Guide   I-CUBE 3D user manual.    FRS Discovery System OCX Control Reference Manual   FANG LPR FRS USER MANUAL    Technology step be step use   DEMO EQUIPMENT I-CUBE Facial Identification FLASH Presentation zip (8 MB)  Face Identification .zip  (17 MB) FACIAL ID, VERIFICATION AND LPR SPEED / ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM HW FRS SDK OCX: ONLINE DB    SDK  SDK PDF DOCUMENT (40KB)  SDK WORD DOCUMENT (150KB) Interest Form FREE CD's          - Facial

Welcome to I-Cube South Africa's leading provider of License Plate Recognition; Facial Recognition AND Image Analysis

Don't pay invalid fines - motorists told

July 26 2006 at 01:10PM

By Glynnis Underhill & Henri du Plessis

Motorists should not cough up if served with notice to pay one of 37 000 invalid fines, dating back to 2004 and issued by the beleaguered Labat Traffic Solutions.

This is the message from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions after Labat recently reneged on an agreement with the DPP and sent out notices to pay the invalid camera fines.

Labat is contracted by the city to operate speed cameras and issue fines on its behalf.

An investigation is already under way into Labat's operations.

Christenus van der Vijver, a senior State advocate with the DPP who handles traffic matters, held a meeting on Tuesday with Labat and the traffic department to discuss the crisis.


Van der Vijver was quoted last week in the Cape Argus as saying he had "smelt a rat" when he discovered Labat had sent out notices of intention to prosecute for traffic offences committed on Cape provincial roads during 2004.

This contravened an agreement with the DPP that traffic summonses had to be served within 18 months from the date of the offence, he said.

After the meeting on Tuesday, Van der Vijver said Labat had claimed it had made an administrative error in sending out the camera fine notices after taking over the processing of provincial traffic fines.

Van der Vijver said motorists should not pay up for camera fine notices for 2004, which have the serial number 908 in the centre of the number at the top.

These were offences committed on provincial roads within the Cape metropole and as far as Helderberg, he said.

Next week, the city's safety and security committee will study a report on a forensic investigation by the city manager's office into Labat's work for the city.

The latest blunder to surface is not part of that investigation.

"The issuing of these fines is news to us and we will have to find out more about it," the spokesperson for the safety and security committee, Arno Vorster, said on Wednesday morning.

Committee chairperson J P Smith told the Cape Argus on Wednesday morning that there were concerns over Labat's work, even though many complaints against the company had proven incorrect.

"Due to their own actions, they are an easy target for easy rumour," he said.

"We cannot simply end their contract, we have to act on concrete issues, but the report will tell us where we stand."

City manager Achmat Ibrahim confirmed on Wednesday that Labat's work for the council had been investigated and a report on the investigation was being prepared for tabling before the portfolio committee next week.

"The report... will focus on the regulation of the city's agreement with Labat," Vorster said.

The costs for issuing invalid fines should be borne by Labat and not the city, because the company ought to be paid only for successful collections and not for fines issued, said Ian Neilson, mayoral committee member for finance.

"We will have to look at the contractual position, but they are supposed to provide the staff and the equipment," he said.

Labat has been dogged by controversy since it won the R60-million-a-year contract to issue and serve traffic fines for the city two years ago.

In 2005 the council gave Labat a second chance after a fiasco when it invalidated more than 44 000 camera fines by failing to follow procedure.

Although city officials promised motorists would not have to pay these invalidated fines, when they asked the courts to withdraw the notices, the fines were simply reduced.

But the DPP's Van der Vijver was determined to ensure this did not happen again after he was alerted to the problem when a colleague recently received one of the invalidated fines.

Concerned traffic officers had also contacted the Cape Argus after numerous motorists showed them 2004 traffic fine notices they had received.

Contacted for comment, Labat Traffic Solutions regional project manager Shaheed Mohamed blamed the latest problem on confusion surrounding the take-over of the provincial administration's traffic fines.

But last week he said he did not know how many invalid fines had been sent out.

At Tuesday's meeting, Van der Vijver obtained an assurance the fiasco of last year would not be repeated.

# October 2004: Labat was given an official warning by the city council to improve its performance within six months. This warning period was later extended to the end of August last year.

# April 2005: A media probe found problems in the contract with Labat, including errors in summonses sent to motorists, legal flaws in the serving of summonses and a logjam in execution of warrants of arrest.

# April 2005: Labat invalidated more than 44 000 camera fines by failing to follow due procedure.

# May 2005: in the Helderberg, thousands of traffic fines issued by Labat and dating back to 2001 were dismissed by courts as out of date.

# June 2006: city manager Achmat Ebrahim ordered an internal audit of the contract with Labat after a Cape Argus probe revealed the city had taken over execution of warrants of arrest from Labat, although the company was still being paid.

I-Cube provides security and recognition systems in the following industry:

I-Cube.   All rights reserved.  Revised: January 13, 2008 .