Court fine system 'good example'

Jack Straw said magistrates' courts should collect fines earlier

Justice Secretary Jack Straw has said that courts in Surrey and Sussex provide a good example for their work in enforcing fines.

Magistrates courts in Surrey and Sussex demand that offenders pay at least half their fine before leaving the building, if they are convicted.

Mr Straw called on JPs across England and Wales to adopt the same measures.

He told the Magistrates Association: "The longer a fine goes unpaid, the greater the risk of default."

Unpaid fines across England and Wales came to a total of £545m at the end of the last financial year and the national collection rate was 85% last year, according to Ministry of Justice figures.

'Bureaucratic absurdity'

Mr Straw said: "In Surrey and Sussex, the bench demands payment forthwith from all sentenced in person and the court takes receipt of 50% there and then.

"But my own discussions with magistrates suggest that this is not the case in many courts at present.

"We need to be more aggressive about this, to maintain confidence in the justice system and because, if a fine is not paid on the day of sentencing, costs are incurred in seeking payment."

He said unpaid fines left courts with the "bureaucratic absurdity" of the cost of collecting a fine being higher than the fine itself.