£10m unpaid fines branded slap in face for crime victims

Tens of thousands of criminals have dodged almost £10 million of fines dished out by Scottish courts in recent years. Many of the unpaid penalties date back three years – with no payments made at all in 20,000 cases.

The non-payments were branded “staggering” by opposition parties and a “slap in the face” for victims of crime.

The SNP government is now being urged to step up efforts to crack down on fine dodgers and retrieve some of the lost millions.

But court chiefs insist there is “no place to hide” for defaulters, with a range of measures now being used to track them down.

A total of £64.6m in fines have been handed out by the country’s sheriff and justice of the peace courts since 2008, according to court service figures.

Of these, £9.7m is currently in arrears, with 22,680 cases where convicts have failed to make any payment at all.

Labour justice spokesman Lewis Macdonald said: “These figures are staggering. Since the SNP scrapped short prison sentences, too many offenders now seem to see paying fines as a matter of choice.

“The number of offenders dodging fines is getting out of hand. Fines have a role to play in minor crimes, but the sheer number of offenders not paying a single penny of their fines is a slap in the face for victims of crime.

“It is clear the SNP government must redouble its efforts to crack down on offenders who refuse to cough up so we get back the millions of pounds of public cash that is going uncollected.”

Fines are often handed out for crimes like assault, theft and housebreaking, although many are for more minor offences.

Courts took over responsibility for their collection from local councils in 2008. Offenders on lower incomes can pay up their fines in instalments. But there are 50,000 cases where criminals are in arrears with fines in the past three years – with almost half having made no payments at all.

Only £29.5m – less than half – of the £64.6m of fines handed out over the past three years by courts have actually been paid. Many of these are being settled in instalments and are on track.

Tory justice spokesman David McLetchie said: “Greater efforts must go into the collection of these fines and to enforce the punishment handed down by the court.”

Liberal Democrat justice spokeswoman Alison McInnes added: “This sends out a wrong message to would-be criminals.”

The court service pursues defaulters through a range of enforcement action including benefit deductions, freezing bank accounts, arresting wages and seizing cars.

More than 340,000 enforcement orders have been granted by courts in recent years.

Eric McQueen, Scottish Court Services executive director of field services, said: “There is no place for fine defaulters to hide.”