If you are or were a prisoner and you have outstanding registered infringement fines or court fines, you can ask Fines Victoria to waive the fines or have them dealt with by a court. This is known as calling in your fines.

If you are serving a term of imprisonment, then your request must be made while you are in prison.

If you were in custody, but you are no longer in custody because:

• your charges were withdrawn, or
• you were only sentenced for time served, or
• you were not sentenced to a term of imprisonment

then your request must be made no more than six months after your release date.

You cannot call in fines for alleged offences committed while you were in custody.

We calculate the value of fines to be waived or dealt with at court based on your time in custody, up to a maximum of 24 months prison time (which equals about $140,380 in fines). We do this by converting the time you spent in custody to a monetary value. One day in custody is the equivalent of one penalty unit. 

If the total of your outstanding fines is less than the converted value of your non-fine related time in custody, we will waive the payment of your unpaid fines.

If you do not have enough prison time to cover all your fines, we will make an application to the court on your behalf and the court will decide what orders to make about your fines.

The court has the power to make a range of orders. Depending on your circumstances, the court may:

• discharge the excess fines in part or full
• make an order for you to pay by instalments
• make an order for you to do community work, or
• make an order for a term of imprisonment

To find out if you have outstanding fines and are eligible, complete and submit the online form.

Submit your request online