Bedford Magistrates CourtMORE than £4 million in court fines is owed to courts in Bedfordshire, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
The figures, released by Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), show that last September the amount of fines owed to the county’s courts stood at £4,286,800.
Between April 2007-September 2012, £3,685,200 was ‘legally cancelled’ after cases had been reconsidered, while £2,967,000 was ‘administratively cancelled’.
In the same period £15,671,475 in fines was collected and a total of £23,079,714 in fines was imposed.
An officer for HMCTS said the department was unable to give the amount owed to individual courts in the county.
The amount of outstanding fines has been criticised by the TaxPayers’ Alliance who said it undermined the court system.
A spokeswoman said: “There’s no point in dishing out fines if people are not handing over what they owe.”
