By CASEY NEILL
DANDENONG drunks could receive a reprieve from huge bills for unpaid fines – some more than $130,000.
Greater Dandenong Police Service Area Inspector Bruce Kitchen last Tuesday announced the Southern Metropolitan Region Alcohol Diversion Program.
Alcohol-dependent repeat offenders who’ve racked up fines for minor public order offences will be offered access to treatment to break the cycle.
“It is a voluntary program for them. It’s another alternative other than paying the fine, doing the community work or getting locked up,” Insp Kitchen said.
“They’ll come back to the court at different stages to see how they’re progressing.
“The idea is to eventually wipe all of those fines out for them, but the main aim is to put them back out into the community… and get their lives back on track.”
Insp Kitchen started plans for the project 12 months ago following complaints from Dandenong residents and shop keepers about men drinking in groups in public spaces.
“They were arrested for drunk and lodged in our police cells for four hours or thereabouts… and fined up to $734,” he said.
“This cohort of people haven’t been able to pay those fines.
“We’ve got one particular person who’s got Sheriff’s fines up to $134,000.
“All of those have been accumulated from public order, drunkenness type behaviour.
“We decided that existing practices weren’t working.”
The 12-month project will run across the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court catchment area, which includes Greater Dandenong and parts of Casey and Cardinia.
“We’ll obviously asses it and audit it and see how it goes but I see it being a long-term program,” Insp Kitchen said.
The Department of Justice’s Loy Kop said 15 recidivist drunks in the Dandenong area owed $500,000 for 1800 warrants.
“They quite often use public transport where they incur further fines for their behaviour,” he said.
“Generally they don’t use motor vehicles, thank goodness, so they’re not intercepted by joint operations with the police or when we do number plate scanning.”
Mr Loy said they used multiple identities.
“When they’re located by the sheriff they have very limited or no capacity to deal with their outstanding fines,” he said.
“They’re unable to pay, they’re unable to go onto payment plans, they’re unable to do community work, or they don’t have any assets that can be seized and sold.”
He said they were arrested, bailed to reappear in court, then often didn’t show up for the next date.
“The Sheriff has to allocate more resources to locate them again as they are often transient,” he said.
Mr Loy said there were provisions for people who were unable to control their actions due to serious alcohol addiction, but it took up to 18 months for their cases to reach a court room.
“During that time they continue to offend, they continue to be a risk to public safety, and they further damage their health,” he said.
Karenza Louis-Smith from support agency ACSO said alcohol was the number one drug of concern.
“It’s higher than cannabis, it’s higher than ice, it’s higher than heroin,” she said.
Ms Louis-Smith said people with alcohol dependence often didn’t put their hand up to access voluntary treatment and were stuck ‘outside the system’.
“If we can connect people into drug and alcohol treatment services… these people will change their lives and our community will be safer,” she said.
Department of Human Services representative Sandy Austin said an alcohol problem was usually a symptom of much bigger problems.
She said addicts needed help to make family and cultural connections, find housing, address health issues, and find work or study.
“The project is responding to those diverse needs,” she said.
