19. Jul. 2010. – 14:33:33
There are some days with some people discussing some subjects when for days after one has an unusual mental itch that doesn`t seem to respond to any scratching. The only cure I have found for such a situation is to source as much material as one can on the subject that`s causing that much irritation.
And so it`s been for the last few weeks until I finally got round to trying to alleviate that intellectual itch. The catalyst was the announcement earlier this month that there was £1.3 billion give or take the odd few million outstanding in unpaid fines, costs, compensation etc. I was discussing with a colleague and old friend how we treat fare dodgers on our local suburban railway lines and she who sits in London was comparing fines imposed on London bus users who are caught fare dodging. Some of what she said was truly staggering. Two or three times a week a half day court was taken up with lists numbering up to eighty alleged offenders. The vast majority didn`t bother to send in a means form or indeed anything at all in response to the summons. Very few ever actually turned up; perhaps three or four at most. A first offence attracted fines and costs of £200+ for an offender who hadn`t enclosed any response. But what actually caused the metaphorical stagger was the admittedly small number of offenders who appeared never to pay a bus fare and treated the matter of subsequent fines as some slight annoyance. She recounted that at her last sitting in such a court out of about seventy offenders listed four had a history of previous similar offences in the last four years of a number in excess of twenty seven failures to pay. Now that was truly staggering. What was atrocious however was that most of the fines were unpaid. Some were indicated as having been passed to bailiffs but no further details were available to her or her colleagues. I asked her how much such offenders were fined in her court to which she replied a figure of £500+. She showed her frustration by ordering another double espresso.
The body charged with collecting fines from London courts is the London Enforcement Directorate. Funny how these organisations have gone from “agencies” to “directorate” in a decade……….one could be forgiven for thinking KGB but at least the KGB got results. A recent page from its newsletter is copied at the end of this post.
The glaring omission in the information published is of course the totals of unpaid fines and their history. After all in a newsletter one doesn’t tell the troops of the failures; only the successes.
There are two obvious results of this unbelievable inefficiency on the part of government agencies and their overlords. £1.3 Billion should be in the Chancellor`s treasure chest but of equal import is that these hundreds or thousands of non payers plus all the rest spread the word to others that there`s no need to pay a fine for fare dodging or other similar offences; it will disappear. And so help me….they`re correct. It`s difficult enough to put such defaulters in prison at the best of times but in the current climate this is the worst of times. Many US states jail fine defaulters at the rate of a $/day or similar without too much ceremony. It might sound harsh to those who consider that non violent offenders should be “sentenced in the community”. There used to be establishments known as debtors` prisons. For those described here they should be resuscitated!
And so it`s been for the last few weeks until I finally got round to trying to alleviate that intellectual itch. The catalyst was the announcement earlier this month that there was £1.3 billion give or take the odd few million outstanding in unpaid fines, costs, compensation etc. I was discussing with a colleague and old friend how we treat fare dodgers on our local suburban railway lines and she who sits in London was comparing fines imposed on London bus users who are caught fare dodging. Some of what she said was truly staggering. Two or three times a week a half day court was taken up with lists numbering up to eighty alleged offenders. The vast majority didn`t bother to send in a means form or indeed anything at all in response to the summons. Very few ever actually turned up; perhaps three or four at most. A first offence attracted fines and costs of £200+ for an offender who hadn`t enclosed any response. But what actually caused the metaphorical stagger was the admittedly small number of offenders who appeared never to pay a bus fare and treated the matter of subsequent fines as some slight annoyance. She recounted that at her last sitting in such a court out of about seventy offenders listed four had a history of previous similar offences in the last four years of a number in excess of twenty seven failures to pay. Now that was truly staggering. What was atrocious however was that most of the fines were unpaid. Some were indicated as having been passed to bailiffs but no further details were available to her or her colleagues. I asked her how much such offenders were fined in her court to which she replied a figure of £500+. She showed her frustration by ordering another double espresso.
The body charged with collecting fines from London courts is the London Enforcement Directorate. Funny how these organisations have gone from “agencies” to “directorate” in a decade……….one could be forgiven for thinking KGB but at least the KGB got results. A recent page from its newsletter is copied at the end of this post.
The glaring omission in the information published is of course the totals of unpaid fines and their history. After all in a newsletter one doesn’t tell the troops of the failures; only the successes.
There are two obvious results of this unbelievable inefficiency on the part of government agencies and their overlords. £1.3 Billion should be in the Chancellor`s treasure chest but of equal import is that these hundreds or thousands of non payers plus all the rest spread the word to others that there`s no need to pay a fine for fare dodging or other similar offences; it will disappear. And so help me….they`re correct. It`s difficult enough to put such defaulters in prison at the best of times but in the current climate this is the worst of times. Many US states jail fine defaulters at the rate of a $/day or similar without too much ceremony. It might sound harsh to those who consider that non violent offenders should be “sentenced in the community”. There used to be establishments known as debtors` prisons. For those described here they should be resuscitated!
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