Millions in fines owed to Scottish courts though enforcement puts dent in arrears

A report released by SCTS showed that £4.3 million in unpaid penalties are owed to the sheriff courts for the period of 2013-17. A further £900,000 is owed to the Justice of the Peace courts while £800,000 is owed in fiscal fines.

In addition, £300,000 worth of antisocial behaviour fines remain unpaid.

However, more than half of the Sheriff Court fines by value – 63 per cent totalling £4.9m – from December 2016-April 2017 have been paid and a further 19.4 per cent is on track to be paid.

A spokesman for the SCTS explained that a “time lag between applying an enforcement action and receiving subsequent payments is why arrears figures for recent years are higher than previous years”.

He added: “However, that doesn’t mean defaulters escape payment. We take action to collect unpaid fines through strong measures including clamping cars and seizing payment directly from wages, bank accounts and benefits.

“The figures demonstrate that arrears greatly reduce over time as the interventions of our enforcement officers secure compliance.”