Out of 48 fines received, a resident of Iesa was left with only one. He will have to work for the benefit of the community for a day – Ziarul de Iasi

When the municipal officials finally remember the debtors, it is already too late. An attempt by the City Hall to force a debtor to do unpaid community work was dismissed without discussion by the judges. Some fines were more than 10 years old.

Constantin C. was summoned to court in the spring of last year, the City Hall demanding that the fines collected by him be replaced by unpaid work for the benefit of the community. In the period 2011-2018, 48 fines were imposed on the resident of Iesa, mostly for public order, in the total amount of 11,215 lei. The citizen did not generate income that could be subject to enforcement, and in June 2017 he was declared insolvent by the Directorate of Local Public Finances. Since that moment, however, no action has been taken regarding the debtor.

According to the law, fines can be converted into unpaid community service if enforcement of the debtor cannot be achieved. The “exchange rate” of fines in working hours is set according to the gross minimum wage per country. In 2023, it was 3,300 lei per month, for a normal work schedule of 169 hours per month, respectively 20 lei/hour. No one can be forced to work more than 300 hours. The town hall would thus have only managed to recover at most 6,000 lei from the 11,215 lei owed by Constantin C.

However, the municipality did not get even that much. The Magistrates of the Court found that the debt limitation period had expired for most of the fines. The town hall had 5 years to demand the forced execution of the debts, but it had not done so. Only for one fine, applied in December 2018, the statute of limitations had not yet expired. The judges ordered the transformation of that single fine into work. Constantin C. will thus have to perform 10 hours of work for the benefit of the community in the account of the debt of 11,215 lei.

The commune of Movileni is in a similar situation. Ionuț A. owes the municipality of this commune 2,400 lei, on account of 21 fines received in the period 2012-2015. The action of the Movileni town hall, which requested the transformation of fines into unpaid work for the benefit of the community, was completely rejected by the magistrates of the Court. The statute of limitations had long since expired. Both town halls declared an appeal against the sentences, the files entering the Court yesterday.