No one was spared when Police stepped up patrols to make arrests for some 7,000 outstanding warrants yesterday - not even the son of Health and Family Services Minister Nelson Bascome.

Police recently set up the Warrant Team task force in a bid to retrieve an estimated $1.4 million in unpaid fines.

And yesterday Nelson Bascome Jr. felt the full force of the team's efforts - avoiding arrest only after his father intervened.

A warrant was out for Mr. Bascome Jr.'s arrest because of an unpaid fine but it was later revealed that the fine had been settled and the warrant should have been scrapped.

And last night the Government Minister called for a probe into the handling of unpaid fines and the issuing of warrants, saying that there was an evident lack of communication between the Police and the courts.

And he said Robert Horton, the Permanent Secretary for Labour and Home Affairs, had pledged to look into the situation.

The call comes following comments from Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves, who this week said that all law enforcement entities must work together and carry their share of the responsibility to ease the court load.

Last night a Police spokesman acknowledged that "there is presently an abundance of outstanding warrants".

Dwayne Caines said: "The first phase of our initiative was to address any outstanding court matters at a prearranged time with no additional penalty. We have since moved on to the second phase, which consists of the creation of a purposely-created Warrant Team, whose task is to seek out and serve these outstanding warrants through powers of arrest."

He added that Police and the Court Administration would continue to discuss long term solutions to the current backlog."