Fine dodgers accounts frozen

Court administrators revealed yesterday they had to seize a Perthshire man’s bank account to get him to cough up for motoring fines he avoided paying for months.

The man owed £400 in fines imposed at Inverness JP Court for driving without a proper licence or insurance but ignored repeated warning letters.

However when fines enforcement officers froze his account he soon stumped up the sum, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) said yesterday.

Officials also had to obtain another arrestment order for a Perth man to get him to settle a £300 fine he got at Fort William JP Court for driving without a proper licence, the SCTS added.

Freezing bank accounts or arresting wages are among a number of measures available to the SCTS for recovering unpaid fines, a spokesperson explained yesterday.

Other enforcement measures include clamping vehicles, taking money directly from benefits and even arresting non-payers travelling through ports and airports.

SCTS chief operations officer David Fraser warned yesterday: “The fines enforcement teams continue to be highly effective in securing unpaid fines – ignoring your fine and not speaking to an enforcement officer if you are having difficulty paying is very unwise.

“Failure to pay, or to engage with our officers, will result in strong sanctions being taken including arrestment of wages, bank accounts, your car being clamped or inconvenience and embarrassment by being arrested when travelling abroad.”