2:17pm Sunday 15th November 2009
By Naomi Loomes
Justice Secretary Jack Straw claims courts in Sussex provide a good example for the rest of the country.
Magistrates demanded that convicted offenders paid at least half their fine before leaving the court.
Mr Straw called on JPs across England and Wales to adopt similar measures.
He told the Magistrates Association: "The longer a fine goes unpaid, the greater the risk of default."
Unpaid fines across England and Wales totalled £545m last year, according to Government figures.
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.
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