(JOEL LEMAY/QMI AGENCY FILE PHOTO)

MONTREAL — A woman who refused to pay a $235 fine for overdue library books was sentenced to 11 days in a Montreal jail.

A 20-cent-a-day late fee issued in 2007 escalated into an arrest warrant, and the woman was picked up while driving her car on a highway east of Montreal on Tuesday.

The library in the Montreal suburb of Repentigny began tallying the woman's fine after she failed to return five books on Oct.17, 2007. The city sent warnings and an invoice, which it says were ignored.

The municipality obtained a ruling of non-payment against the woman in October 2008.

The city then lost track of the woman, who by 2010 was living in Shawinigan, Que., 90 minutes east of Montreal. A municipal court judge found her guilty in January 2011 and issued an arrest warrant. She was picked up in Shawinigan this week and carted off to a jail in Montreal.

It was there that she coughed up the fine to avoid being locked up.