Cost to courts soars to £20m

New figures from the Scottish Executive show the total amount outstanding has soared in recent years as an increasing number of offenders choose to ignore financial penalties.

The revelation will increase concern about government plans to downgrade non-payment of court fines from an arrestable offence to a civil matter, with collection left to sheriff officers.

The plan, revealed by Scotland on Sunday, would lead to 7,000 people a year escaping jail terms for non-payment of fines, and save thousands of hours of police time currently spent chasing fine defaulters.

Despite these benefits, the new figures for non-payment of fines - which were revealed in a parliamentary written answer - will disturb those already concerned about the reputation of the Scottish legal system.

Scotland’s sheriff courts are owed 9.1m in unpaid fines for crimes as serious as assault.

District courts are owed 10m, almost 2m of which is outstanding from 1998.

In addition, over 600,000 of unpaid fiscal fines are still owed by offenders - 76,000 still outstanding since 1998.

Bill Aitken, the Scottish Tory justice spokesman, said: "Quite apart from the questions of justice and law and order, the Executive’s failure to chase up unpaid fines means that Scottish public services are losing out on millions of pounds each year. That cash could be put to good use in our schools and hospitals.

"For all the Executive’s tough talk, what we have is a system whereby criminals are being fined and then laughing at justice by failing to pay those fines. Even when they go to jail, all they face are derisory sentences of one or two nights for failure to pay a 250 fine. It’s time ministers’ actions caught up with their rhetoric. They must stop being soft on offenders."

Roseanna Cunningham, the SNP’s shadow justice minister, said: "These figures are nothing short of breathtaking. It’s difficult to comprehend the staggering level of complacency which allows almost 20m worth of fines to remain uncollected.

"What is even more unbelievable is that the Executive is failing to use civil means, such as arrestment of wages or benefits, to pursue the unpaid fines."

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman admitted that the Executive was reviewing methods of forcing more offenders to pay their fines.

She said: "The majority of fines imposed by the courts are paid in full. Fine enforcement is a matter for the individual district courts.

"We are reviewing means of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the summary justice system and we expect a number of specific recommendations on fine enforcement."

The admission comes in the wake of a series of grim figures for the Scottish Executive. Last week, Scotland’s biggest police force - Strathclyde - admitted that violent crime levels had risen by 14% over the past year.

Last week, Scotland on Sunday revealed that ministers planned to make non-payment of a fine a civil offence.

The plans will see fine defaulters’ cases handed to civil debt collection agencies, which may seize cash from the offenders’ wages, benefits or bank accounts.

However, the move enraged opposition MSPs, who claimed it was unacceptable that a person fined for an assault would face no worse sanction for non-payment than debt collectors.

At present there are warrants outstanding against 27,600 people for non-payment of fines in Strathclyde alone.