New Attorney General Larry Mussenden yesterday ordered a full report into the legal questions raised by news that there have been no prosecutions for the non-payment of parking fines for almost two years.

He said that while he did not know the specifics of the case, he was aware a backlog of cases had appeared.

After a Cabinet meeting yesterday, he said: "I'm looking forward to the receipt of a report in a timely manner at which point we will be able to look at the system to see where it is failing and then take steps to make it work properly."

He also encouraged people "to pay their parking tickets" because "whatever recommendations that are made will surely be put into place".

"If anything needs fixing we will fix it and make sure that it works.

"I would imagine that a time is coming when we won't have such an accrual of parking tickets."

He said he remembered having been a Crown counsel at the time Magistrate Edward King dismissed a number of parking fine cases on the grounds that the offences were out of date.

"It is always an interesting topic."

Mr. Mussenden added that questions about why there had been no prosecutions should be directed to the Department of Public Prosecutions.

"The Attorney General's chamber is here to support the legislative framework and make sure the law is in place to make sure we have an effective system."

Yesterday, Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Kulandra Ratneser declined to comment until he had looked into the matter more fully.

Shadow Attorney General Trevor Moniz urged Government to get to the root of the problem.

"If it doesn't work fix it. If it does, then get on and enforce it. It's not terribly complicated. I mean if you can't deal with parking tickets then how are you fit to run a government?"

Meanwhile, it emerged that members of the public were more feisty when they caught traffic wardens trying to stick tickets on their vehicles yesterday.

But, according to the Police officer in charge of dealing with traffic offences, Chief Insp. Anthony Mouchette, the day was normal in terms of the number of parking tickets that were issued.

"It was a regular day in terms of tickets. We had more people complaining to the traffic wardens because of the story. They got grief when they were about to issue tickets.

"People were saying: 'Hey you can't do that, didn't you see the paper today?'".

He reminded the public that tickets will still be issued for anyone who parks illegally in Bermuda.

Meanwhile, senior courts administrator Tracey Kelly said there was no great movement of people to pay their fines off at Magistrates' Court either.

The court did receive some calls from people who had been convinced to pay off their parking tallies for fear of being exposed as fine dodgers.