ANOTHER FINES MESS
£20m outstanding as criminals don’t pay up
THOUSANDS of criminals are failing to pay fines issued by police and courts – with more than £20million outstanding in the past four years.
In the past year, less than half of fines imposed on offenders by Sheriff Courts were paid in in full.
Payment rates for fixed penalty notices issued to motorists and for minor offences such as littering are lower, with just over a third of offenders paying off fines in the past 12 months.
At the start of April, a total of £21.5million in fines issued by
Sheriff Courts, Justice of the Peace Courts ( JPC) and police and fixed penalty notices, remained unpaid since 2016.
There has also been a sharp fall in the number of fines issued, from 100,748 in 2016-17 to 71,254 last year, a drop of 29.3 per cent.
Statistics obtained from the Scottish Court and Tribunal Service using freedom of information legislation reveal that, since 2016-17 Sheriff Courts have issued 72,725 fines totalling £36.1million.
By April 1, authorities had collected just £26.7million as recovery rates dropped from 88 per cent in 2016-17 to just 45 per cent in 2019-20. About £2.9million is due from last year alone.
In the same period, JPC recovery rates dropped from 92 to 61 per cent. Recovery rates on fixed penalties also dropped to just 36 per cent last year. Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said: “People will wonder what the point of a fines system is when half of those issued aren’t even paid. It’s no wonder criminals don’t take the justice system seriously.”
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Collection of monetary fines is not a matter for Police Scotland.”
The SCTS and the Scottish Government were approached for comment.