Defendant was indicted after she tricked a security guard at the offices of her former employer into letting her into the building where she used a FAX machine to send the employer's bank a forged "wire transfer letter" instructing it to transfer $7500 from one of its accounts into her own personal checking account.
In a pretrial Sandoval ruling, the trial court determined that the prosecutor, inter alia, could question defendant about her accumulation of 44 parking tickets in two years for which she had not paid the fines. Defendant contends that permitting inquiry into her unpaid parking tickets violated Vehicle and Traffic Law § 155. We disagree.
Initially, we note that since defendant failed to challenge the ruling on this basis in the trial court, the matter has not been preserved for our review (CPL 470.05; People v Claudio, 64 N.Y.2d 858). In any event, although Vehicle and Traffic Law § 155 provides that "[a] traffic infraction is not a crime * * * and shall not affect or impair the credibility as a witness or otherwise of any person convicted thereof", the statute does not preclude inquiry into the consistent failure to pay fines imposed on traffic tickets. Defendant's pattern of failing to pay the parking tickets was relevant to a determination of her credibility, particularly her willingness to place her own interests above those of society (People v Sandoval, 34 N.Y.2d 371). The probative worth of the evidence was not outweighed by any possible prejudice to defendant. In light of the overwhelming evidence of defendant's guilt, any possible error in this regard also would have "paled into harmlessness" (People v Shields, 46 N.Y.2d 764, 765; People v Jones, 158 A.D.2d 346, lv denied 76 N.Y.2d 737).
Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Rosenberger, Kupferman, Ross and Smith, JJ.