The Lord Chancellor has demanded to see Argus stories on the spiralling level of unpaid court fines in East Sussex.

The Argus exclusively revealed how East Sussex magistrates' courts are owed more than £4 million in fines. At a meeting with MP Ivor Caplin, Lord Irvine, the head of the legal system, said he was concerned about the high level of outstanding fines.

The committee has also written off slightly less than £900,000 in unpaid debts in the last quarter, a 70 per cent rise on the previous quarter. The uncollected money includes fines, fees, costs and compensation payments relating to criminal proceedings in magistrates' courts and fines from crown court cases in Brighton, Lewes, Eastbourne and Hastings.

Mr Caplin, Labour MP for Hove, met the Lord Chancellor and said he raised both "concern and considerable interest" in the matter. Mr Caplin added: "I was very pleased that he decided to take an interest.

"I think the Lord Chancellor may well ask the court service directly. I think it's unacceptable. We need people who have committed offences and are fined to pay them. That's the right and proper thing to be done. It clearly has not been happening and we need to make sure it is. If it leads to a tightening in the way fines are collected then that is a job well done by the Argus."

The news comes a day after it was revealed a blitz on unpaid fines across East Sussex was being launched. House-to-house inquiries will take place to force debtors to pay up. The crackdown is said to be part of a tougher approach to unpaid fines.

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