Criminals beware! NES watchdog on prowl |
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Published
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Thu, 17 Mar 2005 01:00
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Criminals absconding without making bail payments need to watch out! Bailiffs have now been entrusted with added search-and arrest powers to account for the outstanding £30.2m court fines across Merseyside and Cheshire.
Government figures showed that the due fine amount had risen from £18.4m to £21.6m in Merseyside and from £7.5m to £8.6m in Cheshire courts last year. Considering this, the new National Enforcement Service (NES) team will now have officers keeping an eye on offenders, and even pulling them out of their homes in case they refuse to surrender or answer the door.
| Home Secretary Charles Clarke commented that the (NES) team intended to teach such abstainers a lesson as they were criminals who were depleting the police’s resources and rendering the court procedures difficult.
With Merseyside, topping the least collection list in the country last year and having recovered a meager 51% of the fines in the first quarter of 2004, the Government was subsequently compelled to slash its 2003-2004 collection target from 75% to 63%. The Government, however, has hopes pinned on the NES team and believes that the wide discrepancy in fine collections by Merseyside is being taken care of. Hence, the standard 81% has been set as target even for Merseyside like the rest of the country.
The NES is one of the first serious measures ever taken to place magistrates' courts system in England and Wales under stringent government control since England and Wales also reported a rise from £359.2m last year to £403.4m arrears in fine collections at the end of 2004.
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