A Toronto man who now lives in Alberta reached out to Speakers Corner after old fines he thought were a thing of the past – and resolved after serving jail time – have come back to haunt him.His story begins at Sankofa Square – then Yonge Dundas Square – back in the mid-1990’s, which was a hot spot for various tableside vendors selling all sorts of goods.Halpin Hild ran one of those tables, admittedly without a permit.“I was just trying to make a living. We were selling imitation Oakleys, Tag Heuer watches, fake Rolexes and stuff like that,” he said. “Unlike others, I was always honest with people and told them they were imitations and not the real thing.”He didn’t make a ton of money but quickly caught the attention of City bylaw officers.“Everyday I was getting $112 ticket fines. I remember I got 13 tickets in one day,” he said.The tickets kept piling up and Hild says he never paid them – at least not with currency.“Because I had so many fines I was sent to the Don Jail for two weeks,” he said. “I went to court after the jail time and the judge herself was very surprised that I even did the time. I said, ‘from what I understand, this fine is all over, it is complete now.’ The judge said, ‘well, it should be.’”That’s apparently not the case however, as Hild who is now trying to purchase a home in Alberta, has found out. He discovered on his consumer credit report that more than $30,000 in unpaid fines from the 1990’s have been sent to collections.“This is now impacting me buying this house. I was like, ‘wait I thought I did jail time for this but they’re still coming after me,’” he said. That’s despite a decision last May where the city authorized writing off more than $3M in other bylaw fines that have gone uncollected for years.Speakers Corner reached out to City of Toronto staff asking if Hild was part of that write off and inquired whether his jail time was sufficient to erase the fines he was facing.“In Mr. Hild’s circumstance, the outstanding POA fines were not eligible for write-off in 2026,” the spokesperson said.The City says unpaid Provincial Offences Act (POA) fines do not expire and must be paid, as there is no limitation period. The City is now utilizing several tools to collect fines, some $2M owed which date back several years.“The City takes every effort to collect fines and they are only able to be written off in a small percentage of cases in accordance with the City’s Write-Off Policy for Fines under the Provincial Offences Act,” the spokesperson said. Hild is now considering hiring a lawyer to fight the fines, again arguing his time in jail was enough to satisfy the non-payment.He’s also working with Equifax to try and remove the unpaid fines from his consumer credit report.“I’m in my 60’s, disabled and I’m living in my own trailer home now in Alberta and I desperately want to move into a house that fits my budget and this is impeding me – I mean we’re talking about a lot of money,” he said.If you have an issue, story or question you’d like us to look into, contact us.