Wimmera residents owe state millions

Victorian Sheriff Brendan Facey visited the region last week with a team of Sheriff's officers to crack down on more than 3674 people who have unpaid fines, which include parking fines and speeding fines.

Working with Wimmera police, the sheriff and his officers targeted drivers in Horsham with a series of road blocks.

The law enforcers also used automatic number plate recognition technology in Ararat on Tuesday.

Figures from the sheriff's office show there are 1040 people living in Horsham Rural City with fines totalling more than $1.4 million.

In Ararat Rural City there are almost 900 people with outstanding fines amounting to more than $1.6 million the highest sum of any Wimmera shire.

Mr Facey said the machine identified a total of 239 outstanding warrants on Tuesday alone.

He said the collective debt from those unpaid fines was about $80,000.

"Too many people find themselves in financial trouble because they simply ignore speeding or parking fines," Mr Facey said.

He said a small fine could quickly grow if it went unpaid.

"Leaving it and hoping it will go away is the worst possible approach to dealing with fines," he said.

Mr Facey said he was particularly concerned about people in regional Victoria losing their primary mode of transport because they had outstanding warrants.

"Once we catch people, we have some very significant sanctions we can apply," he said.

Mr Facey said sheriff's officers had the authority to clamp a car's wheels, suspend a vehicle's registration or prohibit the owner from renewing their car registration if the defaulter failed to clear their debt.

They can also suspend a motorist's driver's licence, seize and sell their property and arrest a person.

"We want people to come and talk to us before it gets to that," Mr Facey said.

He said the sheriff's office offered payment plans for people who could not afford to pay their fine up-front.

"We can even take payments through Centrepay," Mr Facey said.

"A lot of people don't realise that, and they let it all get quite out of control."

Mr Facey said 16 more sheriff's officers would be deployed around the state in the next few months to help track down people with outstanding fines.

"We're out there, all throughout Victoria, every day, looking for people with outstanding fines," he said.

Mr Facey said people could track and pay their outstanding fines online at www.fines.vic.gov.au.

The Department of Justice's Grampians regional director Catherine Darbyshire also urged defaulters to deal with their outstanding warrants proactively.

"The best way is to call us or visit one of our local justice service centres," she said.

Horsham's Justice Service Centre is located on Level 2, 21 McLachlan Street.

Ms Darbyshire said people could call the office on 4344 1444.