Criminals fail to pay £1.5m in court fines

But despite the huge financial deficit, court officials have only used civil powers to recover unpaid fines eight times in the last three years.

A leading MSP today accused the courts of jailing non-payers when they could use civil powers to recover the cash.

SNP justice spokeswoman Roseanna Cunningham claimed the jailing of fine-dodgers was leaving Scottish jails "creaking at the seams", and that alternative ways to recover unpaid fines needed to be used more often.

The Scottish Executive has admitted that more than 20m was outstanding in unpaid fines over the last four years, including 1,556,178 at the last count for Edinburgh Sheriff Court .

Ms Cunningham said: "In addition to this the Executive also admitted that of the 50 sheriff court districts detailed in the answer only seven had in the last year made any attempt to recover outstanding fines through the use of civil procedures. In the year 2000, 41 per cent of non-violent offenders sent to prison were fine defaulters.

"It is no wonder that Scotland has one of the highest prison populations in western Europe and it is no wonder that our prisons are creaking at the seams and we have record levels of overcrowding in places such as Cornton Vale.

"This Executive seems to have totally abdicated any responsibility towards the use of civil procedures to collect unpaid fines in their unseemly haste to send people to prison."

In reply to official questions in parliament from Ms Cunningham, Justice Minister Jim Wallace confirmed that outstanding unpaid fines at Edinburgh Sheriff Court totalled 1,576,620 on June 30 this year. Only Glasgow Sheriff Court had a higher figure of 1.9m.

At Haddington Sheriff Court, which covers East Lothian and parts of the Borders, unpaid fines totalled 108,883. At Linlithgow Sheriff Court in West Lothian the amount of unpaid fines totalled 335,878.

In a separate reply, Mr Wallace revealed that civil procedures to recover unpaid fines had been used in less than 0.1 per cent of cases at Edinburgh.

Civil procedures, which involve methods such as freezing bank accounts or ordering debt recovery through sheriff’s officers, were used twice in 1999, just once in 2000 and five times last year.

At Linlithgow, they were used once in 1999 and have not been used at all since . At Haddington the civil route has not been used at all in the last three years.

Sheriff courts have been able to recover fines using civil procedures since the Criminal Procedure Act was passed in 1995. But a spokesman for Mr Wallace defended the Executive’s performance, saying: "We’re doing a lot to improve enforcement.

"It is to be expected that a large amount of fines are outstanding because payments are made over a prolonged period of time. However, the vast majority are paid in full and unpaid fines are enforced.

"The Criminal Justice Forum is looking at how fines enforcement might be improved, proposals including the introduction of fines enforcement officers and more flexible arrangements for payment.

"The McInnes Committee has been tasked with making recommendations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the summary justice system and we expect those recommendations to include fines enforcement."

West Lothian Council’s SNP group leader Councillor Peter Johnston has expressed his "shock and concern" at the huge levels of outstanding fines in the Lothians.

Cllr Johnston explained: "In an answer to my SNP colleague Roseanna Cunningham MSP, the Justice Minister has admitted that the level of unpaid fines from the local sheriff court, as at June this year, was 335,878. On top of this, outstanding district court fines for West Lothian add up to 505,201.

"I am shocked and concerned at these disgraceful figures."