Driver racks up over 20,000 tickets, owes W1.7b in unpaid administrative fines

A single driver has accumulated more than 1.7 billion won ($1.21 million) in unpaid administrative fines as of Oct. 10, police data has revealed.

Administrative fines are imposed on car owners for speeding and parking violations, not by police officers but by cameras, according to the Road Traffic Act.

Rep. Youn Kun-young of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Monday revealed a police list of the top 100 delinquent drivers who have not paid the largest amounts in administrative fines.

The total amount of their unpaid fines was 31.5 billion won.

The driver with the largest delinquency, identified by the surname Lim, has been linked to 19,677 instances of speeding, as well as 1,553 other traffic violations.

Lim is obliged to pay 1,712,806,300 won in fines.

A driver surnamed Kim followed Lim with 1,096,673,960 won of unpaid fines for a total of 13,485 suspected violations.

Unlike fines under other criminal rules, administrative fines are not a criminal punishment, so a high amount in delinquency does not lead to a criminal conviction or license suspension in Korea. The only penalty comes in the form of interest imposed during the unpaid period.

Interest rates are 3 percent during the first month after payment is due, then 1.2 percent per month up to 60 months.

According to police, only 53.6 percent of administrative fines were collected in 2023. The total amount of uncollected administrative fines was 1.13 trillion won as of Oct. 10.