Criminals “sticking two fingers up” to courts as almost two-thirds of fines in Longford going unpaid

An increasing number of criminals are “sticking two fingers up” to the law after new figures showed almost two thirds of court imposed fines in Longford are going unpaid.

The stinging criticism came courtesy of Fianna Fáil Cllr Seamus Butler following the release of documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

The data covers the period from January to December 2022 and from January to the end of September this year for road traffic and theft related offences.

According to figures obtained by Independent.ie approximately 243 fines, amounting to a total of €65,000 were handed out by Longford courts last year.

Despite those sanctions, over €36,000 remained outstanding by the end of December 2022.

The figures, released by the Courts Service, would appear to show how the situation facing the judiciary is appearing to worsen.

From January to the end of September this year, a total of 162 fines were recorded in Longford, translating to an overall total of just over €44,000.

More than €28,000 of that total, however, has yet to be recouped in a statistic that sparked an angry riposte from Cllr Butler.

The former chairperson of Longford’s Joint Policing Committee (JPC), called for an overhaul of the legislative system and said an element of individuals who come before the courts were effectively “sticking two fingers up” to the system that’s currently in place.

In calling for the courts to be given greater flexibility in imposing garnishee orders to those convicted by a judge, Cllr Butler said: “What is wrong is that people who are on social welfare if they are fined and don’t pay it there is no option for the court to put a garnishee order on their social welfare income whereas if they are in employment they can seek a garnishee order for it to be deducted from their wages.

“That, to my mind, would be the main source of non-payment of fines.”

Cllr Butler also hinted at how certain individuals were opting to choose prison over settling any financial penalty handed down by the courts.

“My understanding anecdotally is that they are brought down for the non-payment of fines to Castlerea Prison and they are given their lunch and they get someone to drive them back,” he said.

“They have no respect for the law in the first place and there is no real punishment for not paying the fine if you are on social welfare and I think that has to fundamentally change so that these people are hit in the pocket

“Garnishee orders can be granted by the court just there is a regulation to say you can’t do that for social welfare and that is actually discriminating against people who get up in the morning and go to work.”

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