“Unpaid Traffic Tickets After 40 Years....”

Hi !

I have some questions if somebody can help me...

My father late seventies (1977) had some traffic tickets in Ontario but we moved in Europe and he never paid them.

Now he is back in Canada and he needs a drivers licence.

The fines are deleted after 40 years???

Can he go for the tests for a new drivers licence???

He has to pay the fines???

Please if anybody knows because I need him to have a drivers licence to help me with my kids ( driving to and from schools..)

thank you !!!! :

Only one way to find out... go to MTO office with European drivers license and say you want to swap it for Ontario license. If there is anything in the system, they will tell you.

If the fines are outstanding, his licence will have been suspended and he will need to pay them off before being re instated, even after 40 years. Do not let him drive with his European licence here until the matter is cleared up or he may be charged with driving under suspension which will lead to a 6 month suspension if convicted...go to any Service Ontario office and they will tell you how to clear it all up...

I'd be interested to know whether the records are still in the MTO database after all this time. Also prior to 1990 (I think) it was standard practice to issue arrest warrants for people who failed to respond to their traffic tickets, I wounder what the courts have done with those outstanding warrants. Anyway, as others have said, the only way to know for sure is to go to Service Ontario and have them check their database to see if there are any outstanding fines on file. If there are, then your father will need to make arrangements to pay them off before he can drive in Ontario.

Yes, the records will still be there, no doubt at all...Ontario did not issue warrants for unpaid fines for people who did not pay their fines for traffic tickets, they only suspended their licences. There was a time they issued warrants for unpaid fines for convictions under other statutes such as the Liquor Licence Act, never for Highway Traffic Act convictions...

Yes. Ontario did use commital warrants but not for HTA offences. They were actually for other Provincial Offences, including parking tickets! Nothing like stopping someone years ago and saying $500 or 7 days in jail!

That stopped when the province agreed to not issue plate renewals for those outstanding fines.