Frustrated detainees arrested in a Police blitz on outstanding warrants are demanding that an ATM machine be installed in the Magistrates' Court building.

As Police continue to arrest offenders on outstanding warrants, Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves this week remanded several individuals in custody on the spot until the cash for unpaid fines was produced. The lower court only accepts cash and cheques, not credit cards.

And it did not take long for the repercussions and inconvenience of Police patrols and arrests to resonate throughout the community.

In a letter to The Royal Gazette, one member of the public caught up in the sting of arrests wrote: "If Police are going to set up a dragnet", they should be better prepared.

"Having gone through the humiliating process of being herded about and waiting around in lock up at (Hamilton Police Station), I have the following comments.

"Why not have cash machines near the Police Station or at least near Magistrates' Court? It's not like there is a lack of security. Maybe not all people carry ATM cards, but it would save time and inconvenience for those who do - or maybe this is part of the psychology, to humiliate and inconvenience the perpetrators."

The letter continued: "Of the eight persons detained in my group, two of us were falsely detained. And there was no easy way to pay the outstanding fines on site or at the Police Station, short of calling a friend or relative to deliver the requisite cash. In one case a fellow needed to get to an ATM for money, but was unable to do so until an officer got around to escorting him to a machine."

Magistrates' Court administrative officer Tracey Kelly was unavailable for comment last night.

However one court source, who did not wish to be named, said there was no definitive explanation why machines were not set up in the court building.

And they said they believed that much of the backlog in collecting money for outstanding fines could be relieved if the court accepted credit cards and debit cards.

Bank of Bermuda spokeswoman Anna Lowry said the issue had never been raised, but noted that there were ATM machines in the neighbouring General Post Office and the bank's nearby Church Street Branch.