Despite nearly seven years since a parking ticket fiasco that clogged up the courts and wasted public money, the ambiguity that allowed the problem to arise may still exist.

A series of rulings made in 1997 by Magistrate Edward King seemed to set down in stone how parking fine cases should be dealt with in court.

Group after group of fine dodgers were let go after Mr. King ruled that the cases could not be heard because the law stated summary offences must come before the courts within six months of the ticket being issued.

Up to $250,000 worth in unpaid fines seemed to be written off.

But the then-Attorney General Elliott Mottley appealed the decision. The Island held its breath to hear what the opinion of Bermuda?s top prosecutor would be.

Then the appeal was withdrawn. Mr. Mottley said ?it was a decision based on law? and left it to Government to take action.

In early 1998, the United Bermuda Party Government passed the Traffic Offences Procedure Validation Act, which in essence gave the courts the power to deal with outstanding parking offences up to the date of the law?s passage, regardless of how long it had been since the offences were committed.

The courts got to work dealing with the backlog and Government was promptly criticised for being too hasty in getting to work.

Despite this, the law remains unclear as to whether people who are slapped with parking tickets more than six months before they are forced to come to court can be made to pay up.

It is understood that some lawyers believe this ?loophole? still exists and regularly exploit it by not paying their fines and simply ignoring the tickets.

One lawyer said: ?I never pay my tickets because I know they just won?t catch up with me.?

And another said he was told by another senior lawyer: ?Don?t worry about parking tickets. Nobody pays those.?

However, it is far from clear whether they can get away with it. Although Mr. King ruled that out of date parking offences could not be pursued, there is uncertainty over when a prosecution in this kind of matter actually begins.

One school of thought says that prosecutions for parking tickets only begin when the person is issued with a summons and forced to appear in court.

This is in line with other traffic offences, such as speeding and impaired driving.

However, another argument is that a prosecution for a parking ticket actually begins when the ticket is slapped on the window of a car or the handlebars of a cycle.

If such an argument ever held up in court, those people who have thousands of dollars in unpaid fines at the moment could find themselves reaping what they sowed.