The 10 top TransLink fare evaders in B.C. collectively owe more than $73,000 racked up from 535 tickets issued between 2002 and 2012.

That shocking figure was released by ICBC this week, following a Province story Tuesday detailing how one Maple Ridge woman had amassed $2,100 in fines from almost a dozen tickets.

Turns out, that’s nothing.

The top fare evader in B.C. is an Abbotsford resident who incurred 107 tickets for TransLink fare infractions and now owes an astonishing $14,583 in fines.

Burnaby is home to the number two offender, who accumulated 86 TransLink tickets worth $11,678. In third place is a Surrey resident who owes $8,418 in fines from 56 tickets.

Five of the Top 10 worst fare offenders are from Surrey, and three are from Burnaby.

These people, whose identities are being withheld by ICBC, are among the 37,000 in the province who together owe $5.7 million and now are going to find their driver’s licences and vehicle registrations subject to “refuse to issue” holds by ICBC when they try to renew their permits.

If they want the privilege of driving in the province, they are going to have to pay up first.

In March, ICBC’s Adam Grossman said that the insurance corporation began sending notice letters.

“We began communicating with affected customers in early March to let them know about the debt and refuse-to-issue hold,” he said.

“This gives them time to deal with it ahead of ... their licensing or insurance transaction.”

A May 2012 legislative provision that came into force at ICBC this week allows the insurer to collect on TransLink fines, considered provincial debts, incurred between 2002 and 2012.

Between 2010 and 2012, ICBC collected $10 million in unpaid fines on 60,000 tickets, averaging 2,500 a month.

TransLink now directly handles collection of fines debt incurred after September 2012, as a result of changes made in the South Coast B.C. Transportation Authority Act. TransLink stated at the time that it was losing $18 million a year in revenue to fare evaders.

“Fare evasion is a serious issue,” said TransLink spokeswoman Jiana Ling. “New legislation that went into effect in September 2012 gives TransLink a powerful tool to reduce fare evasion on our transit system.

“Transit Police and Transit Security conduct regular fare checks to stop those who don’t pay to use the system. Our goal is to ensure everyone pays his or her fair share.”

In 2013, the first full year after TransLink took over fine administration, the transit authority issued 25,400 tickets worth about $5.6 million, collecting on 33 per cent of the tickets.

Once a ticket is more that 180 days past due, the $173 fare evasion fines increase by $40 to $213. Once a ticket is more than one year overdue, fines increase another $60 up to $273.

Delinquent TransLink riders are not the only ones subject to ICBC’s refuse-to-issue holds.

ICBC also has the right to issue holds to collect on nine other types of B.C. debts, including motor vehicle-related criminal code and court fines, nonpayment of child support, debts owed to ICBC, and nonpayment of bridge tolls.

Vancouver resident Tye Shantz found out the hard way about bridge toll bills when he went to get an ICBC car insurance quote this week.

Shantz, 28, said while researching a car purchase he was denied a quote until he paid an outstanding Port Mann Bridge toll bill of $85.

He’d briefly been in Vancouver the spring of 2013 and was using the bridge, but lived in Victoria and was not aware of the tolls.

“No bill ever made it to my Victoria residence of such fees and they just [accumulated], I’m guessing,” Shantz said, adding he moved to Vancouver a few months later. “To get a simple quote, I had to pay my $85 new Toll Bridge fee off.”

eoconnor@theprovince.com

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— Source: ICBC

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