A defence lawyer hit back at the rash of arrests that have been taking place as part of a crackdown on outstanding warrants and fines - claiming that Police are trampling on residents' Constitutional rights.

Larry Mussenden said that the recent road blocks set up to apprehend up to 7,000 people owing $1.4 million in unpaid fines to the courts had once again given rise to the need to revise aspects of the Constitution.

Mr. Mussenden said that he was "appalled" at the recent Police tactics, saying that they are unjustly stopping people without having "reasonable grounds".

And he has challenged the Attorney General's Chamber and the Commissioner of Police to come clean on their stance on what he believed was a blatant violation of Constitutional rights.

"Police are abusing the law to tackle the nightmare of warrants," he said. "They are using the Motor Car Act and the Road Traffic Act - it's wholly unconstitutional - we have the protection of freedom of movement in this country." Mr. Mussenden said that "Police need to have a reasonable ground to stop any motorist" and he claimed that motorists who are being stopped, technically have not committed any offence, pointing out that Police checking off motorists names from a list is an underhanded way to get results.

He added that the backlog in the Magistrates' Court and Police Prosecutions computer system causing people to be arrested unnecessarily, is unacceptable.

"I'm finding out from people who are stopping me in the street that they are being stopped and arrested right on the spot - and their fines have already been paid," he said. "I am appalled and alarmed to see and read of a Chief Inspector (Anthony Mouchette) informing the public that they would be setting up road blocks for the purpose of catching people with outstanding warrants." He continued: "The Constitution is the superior law and any breach of it should not be tolerated. They cannot breach the Constitution because they are having an administrative nightmare. I am aware that in Police training school, they teach that you need to have reasonable grounds to stop someone."

Mr. Mussenden, a former Crown counsel, said he hoped that the Police Commissioner would seek "legal opinion" with the Attorney General to the "constitutionality" of the road blocks, saying they needed to share their findings with the public.

"Police cannot break the law with the purpose of enforcing another," he said. Yesterday, no one from the AG's Chamber would comment, while Police media relations spokesman Dwayne Caines said that Police would release a statement at a later date.

In nearly two weeks, a Police sting operation to reduce nearly 7,000 outstanding warrants by setting up roadblocks, has resulted in over $12,000 in payments and close to 100 people arrested.