MORE than £7.5m in fines issued by courts in the North-East last year was never collected.

It means that offenders escaped with not paying 37.6 per cent of the £20.05m they were ordered to hand over by magistrates across the region.

The worst area for collecting fines was Cleveland, where £2.24m, or 53.2 per cent, of the £4.22m owed went unpaid. That was worse than the national average.

In total, 44.5 per cent - or £190m - of the £426m ordered to be paid was not collected.

Durham's £990,000 uncollected and North Yorkshire's £720,000 were significantly better than the average.

The Government has already announced that every magistrate court will be given the power to deduct fines from wages or benefits, if the offender refuses to pay.

And fines will no longer be written off after 12 months, but will be chased until they are paid, under the plans set out by the new department for constitutional affairs.

Instead, fines will be increased if offenders fail to pay up on time, while those who pay early could get reductions.

Offenders who fail to provide details of income and expenditure to allow the deductions to take place will be guilty of a fresh offence.

Those genuinely unable to pay a fine will be made to do unpaid community work as an alternative punishment.