More than £17m owed to Northumbria and Durham courts

Oct 2 2009 by Kim Carmichael, The Journal

PEOPLE in North East are the worst fine dodgers in the country, it has been revealed.

And not only are courts in the Northumbria and Durham police force areas owed £17m, but a decreasing percentage of the fines handed out are actually being paid.

The Northumbria area has the lowest payment rate in the country, with just 70% of fines being paid off and £13.8m outstanding.

The county has also been the hardest hit in terms of non-payment over the past year, with a 15% drop in the number of fines being paid off in full.

In the area covered by Durham police, meanwhile, £3.4m is still to be accounted for, with the amount of people paying up dropping to 80%, compared to last year’s figure of 90%. The new figures, accessed by The Journal, found that in total, only £8m of the £11m handed out as punishments last year was ever paid.

The Government insists that it takes the issue of fine enforcement very seriously and that Her Majesty’s Courts Service is working to ensure that clamping down on fine dodgers is a continued priority nationwide.

An HCMS spokesperson said it was currently implementing the Criminal Compliance and Enforcement Services. She described it as “a blueprint for 2008 to 2012 which was launched in July 2008 and is currently being implemented by all of the HMCS regions”.

She added: “The blueprint sets out HMCS' strategic objective which is for a cheaper, faster and more proportionate system that primarily focuses on ‘first time’ compliance whilst continuing to apply the principles of rigorous enforcement to the hard core of defaulters.”

The department also outlines measures it uses to encourage criminals to pay, such as the “extensive use of texting non-compliant offenders detailing consequences of non-payment” and “working with magistrates to get more fines paid on the day they are imposed”.

The independent financial advice service National Debtline says it has also noticed a rise in the number of people not paying court fines, saying that, compared to this time last year, the amount of people contacting them for advice on the issue has risen.

A debtline spokeswoman said: “In the financial year 07/08, 9.19% of callers were advised on magistrates court fines, compared to 17.75% during 08/09.”