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Prison threat for unpaid fines
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Monday 16th Sep 2002.
COURT rogues are being warned they could end up in prison if they do not pay fines.
The Lancashire Magistrates' Courts Service has been given £285,000 by the Lord Chancellor's Department to help increase the collection rates on fines, compensation and court costs.
Part of the money is being used to set up a 'fines clinic' at Chorley Magistrates' Court to allow justices more time to deal with serious payment defaulters. A debt counselling and advisory service, using volunteer groups, is also planned.
Some of the money has already been used to provide training and a series of countywide roadshows for magistrates and all the staff to make sure that everyone involved in the service understands the implications of non-payment of fines and how best to enforce payments.
Kevin Flitcroft, enforcement project manager for the Lancashire service, said: "Getting offenders to pay fines and other financial penalties on time has always been a problem -- not just here in Lancashire but right across the UK.
"This money will help us to implement many initiatives during the next few months, specially designed to reduce the barriers of payment as well as persuading offenders that they risk getting a much more stringent penalty and even imprisonment if they don't pay, in full and on time."
New measures will include campaigns enabling enforcement officers, supported by the police and local authorities, to target fines defaulters. Using locally-based intelligence and armed with arrest warrants, the officers will work in teams to blitz targeted areas day and night over 72 hour periods.
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