The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) recently reported on activity taken to recover criminal fines from persistent non-payers.
In one case, a man from Glasgow who had avoided paying fines for
road traffic offences over a four-year period settled the outstanding amounts two hours after finding that his Range Rover Vogue had been clamped.
The man had received four fines for having no tax or insurance and owed a total of £870. The enforcement team obtained a vehicle seizure order at Glasgow Justice of the Peace Court and his luxury Range Rover was clamped just after 11 in the morning. By 1:30 the same day the man had settled his fines in full.
A Lanarkshire man who had avoided paying a fine for six years settled the same day after having his car clamped. The Cumbernauld driver, who owed £525 for fines imposed at Glasgow JP Court for speeding and driving without insurance, had ignored repeated warnings from enforcement officers.
Clamping vehicles is one of a number of measures available to the SCTS for recovering unpaid fines. Other measures include freezing bank accounts, arresting wages, taking money directly from benefits and even arresting non-payers when they are travelling through ports and airports for business or holiday trips.
A new report released by
SCTS reveals that the fines collection rate remains consistently strong. It shows that 88% of the value of Sheriff Court fines imposed during the three-year period between 1st April 2013 and 31st March 2016 has either been fully paid or is on track to be paid through instalments.
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