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Criminals to face paying court charges.


In a move which, is a step in the right direction, the Government has announced that criminals will face having to pay up to £1200 towards the cost of their court case.

Whilst this is to be applauded I feel the ceiling is too low, the fines are not going to be means tested and the court will start with a fine of £150.

The fees are not replacing any other costs the convicted criminal may face, such as compensation orders, fines or legal costs, and will not be linked to the offence but to the cost of the court case, which has lead to concerns that people may plead guilty just to avoid the fee, rather than have their case go to trial.

The system is to be reviewed in six months amid concerns that the fees will go unpaid, and one critic suggests that the court service will have around £1 Billion in unpaid fines by 2020, which is going some as we approximate that only £1/2 Billion in fines would have been issued by then.

We are in danger of having quite a few different charges that the court can levy, it can already impose a charge payable to the prosecution team, the difference with the new one is that the fine is payable to the court service for its costs.

In addition to these two fines the convicted can receive fines for -

- Compensation for victims
- Victims Surcharge Fine
- Fine for the crime

We are all for criminals paying their way, and feel this is a good measure, but with legal aid cuts we would also like to see some funds being redirected back to defendants solicitors.



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