Thanks, I welcome the discussion! The more thought given, the more the unintended consequences loom:
An offender gets fined for speeding and for one reason or another fails to pay the fine.
At the moment (I think) the court would need to take further action to achieve payment. That would mean the court reviewing the case and would be limited to the options available to them, not necessarily with the offender in front of them.
Suppose the subject needs his licence for his work, either to get to it or he is a driver. Suppose the law now enables his licence to be suspended for non-payment of his fine. Now he can neither get to work nor do it if he could get there. How do we suppose the fine gets paid? He could conceivably be sent to prison, possibly for the original sin of exceeding 30mph, with the fine still not paid.
Draconian to say the least, and in my view over the top for the sin of offending the judges dignity or for what could be a very minor contempt. Judges already are not famous for their worldliness and, following a bad seafood lunch, might wield a heavy hand to crack a nut.
As I said earlier, there are already adequate options to follow and I can't see any good reason for slavishly following our trans-Atlantic cousins in their legal entanglements by increasing government's heavy ill-considered hand.
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