Rogues owe £27m in unpaid court fines

Criminals in Greater Manchester owe more than £27 million in outstanding court fines.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that the huge amount of uncollected court fines in the region has only fallen by about £15,000 in the past year — with an outstanding bill of £27.38 million.

Of the total, £13 million is new court fines handed out between April, 2007, and March this year. During the same period £12.8 million was paid. And despite a high profile Government campaign to improve performance, nationally across England and Wales there is a debt of more than £500 million.

A spokesman for Her Majesty’s Court Service said: “The Government takes the issue of fine enforcement very seriously and HM Courts Service is working to ensure clamping down on fine dodgers is a continued priority nationwide.

“To ensure we tackle this issue, the Government have introduced new enforcement sanctions in the Courts Act 2003, made it easier for people to pay fines and is encouraging the use of new technology such as text message reminders for those who default.

“We are having success with reductions in the amount outstanding of more than 10 per cent in a number of places across the country, including South Wales, Warwickshire and West Yorkshire.

“These successes are the result of modern, efficient working practices.”

London had the highest outstanding court fines in the country at £117 million.

Meanwhile, the second highest figure was in the West Midlands (£39.9 million) followed by Greater Manchester.

Durham criminals seem to be the best payers with only £2.9 million outstanding.

As an effort to boost payments rates, the National Enforcement Service are texting the criminals with messages reminding them to pay up.

Pressure group Tax payers Alliance said: “Text messages are no substitute for the actual power of the law.

“This failure is seriously letting down the public.”