They’ll stop you — and hand over everything at once. Cyprus has begun collecting old camera fines on a mass scale

For years, many motorists in Cyprus lived with the feeling that a roadside camera fine could simply be “waited out.” No letter arrived — meaning you were lucky. The recipient was not found — perhaps the problem had disappeared on its own.

Now that scheme is no longer working.

The police have launched a new Photo Radar List system and, in just twenty days, have issued about 13,000 old fines. But this is only the beginning: there are still about 320,000 unpaid penalty notices in the database.

In effect, the authorities are moving from postal notices to the personal search for debtors.

Now a fine can be handed over right on the road

From now on, almost any traffic stop can end with the service of old fines.

During a document check, the officer immediately sees whether the driver has any unpaid penalty notices. If there are any, the receipt is printed and handed over on the spot.

Refusal will not help. Even if the driver does not take the document, the law considers them notified. After that, a 90-day payment period begins. Then the fine increases, and the case is sent to court.

Why the problem became so large

Over the years cameras have been operating, some drivers have accumulated five, seven and even eight unpaid fines, along with penalty points.

According to the police, about 160,000 penalty notices were never served by the system’s private operator. About the same number must now be delivered by the police.

As early as January 2025, the authorities tried to solve the problem by introducing online payment and announcing a kind of amnesty for old fines. At that time, there were about 245,000 unpaid penalty notices in the database.

Separately, there are about 12,000 fines issued to vehicles with Turkish-Cypriot license plates, whose owners had long been impossible to identify.

Unexpected effect — people have stopped collecting letters

Mass fines have led to unexpected consequences.

According to lawmakers on the parliamentary committee, many Cypriots now avoid receiving registered letters altogether, fearing they may find yet another fine inside. As a result, thousands of unclaimed items have begun to pile up at the post office, most of them not related to traffic violations at all.

Why checks at airports were abandoned

Previously, the authorities discussed the possibility of handing fines to passengers at airports, but abandoned the idea after criticism.

Parliament said that detaining people solely to serve a fine without a court order is illegal. In addition, the authorities are taking into account plans for Cyprus to join Schengen, where such checks at internal borders will become impossible.

What this means for drivers

The main conclusion is clear: it is no longer worth hoping that old fines will stay forgotten.

Now they can be served during a routine document check, and along with one notice, a driver risks receiving the entire accumulated package of violations at once. Old fines are no longer an archival problem — they are becoming a very real reason for a run-in with the police at the next stop.