A 4fold boost in the maximum fines offered to magistrates is to be introduced – which means motorway speeders could be forced to spend up to £10,000, and disorderly drunks £4,000, the government mentioned.
Courts will also be capable to levy limitless fines for the first time for the most serious crimes dealt with in the reduced courts – such as environmental offences – which at present attract penalties of up to £5,000 or much more.
But motoring groups mentioned the new fines had been disproportionate and could place men and women off challenging unfair speeding tickets.
Levels of punishment
Magistrates’; Court Recommendations set out how the acceptable level of punishment need to be determined according to the seriousness of the offence.
Beneath the proposed changes the maximums in each and every category will boost from:
- Level 1 – £200 to £800. Involves unauthorised cycle racing on public techniques.
- Level 2 – £500 to £2,000. Consists of driving a motor cycle without a protective helmet.
- Level 3 – £1,000 to £4,000. Consists of the sale of alcohol to a drunk particular person or getting drunk and disorderly in a public spot.
- Level 4 – £2,500 to £10,000. Consists of speeding on the motorway.
Mr Wright mentioned: “Economic penalties set at the proper level can be an powerful way of punishing criminals and deterring them from further offending.
“Magistrates are the cornerstone of our justice technique and these alterations will give them with higher powers to deal with the day-to-day offences that influence their regional communities.”
‘Fines have to be proportionate’;
The amount of fines collected reached an all-time high of £284 million at the finish of 2012/13 and remains on an upward course.
Edmund King, president of the Automobile Association, criticised the alterations.
“For the vast majority of drivers the prospect of the existing £2,500 fine is a fairly great deterrent against excessive speeding on the motorway,” he told the Every day Telegraph.
“We would not condone excessive speeding in any way but fines have to be proportionate to the offence and a single has to question whether growing the fines 4-fold is proportionate, and it almost certainly is not.
“If we had far more cops in vehicles on the motorway that would be a considerably a lot more efficient deterrent.”
‘Motorists will be deterred from going to court’;
Rupert Lipton, director of the National Motorists Action Group, said it was “disproportionate and draconian”.
“I believe it will have a serious chilling effect. We will find motorists will be deterred from going to court where they don’;t think they are guilty of an offence and there is a prospective challenge.”
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 allowed for magistrates to be give the power to impose unlimited fines for some offences.
But the government is only now tabling legislation to place that into impact.
Speeding offences have declined
RAC Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister stated: “People who break the law should bear the consequences.
“But this appears such a wholesale modify to the method so you have to ask what was going so badly wrong ahead of?
“Ironically we know that speeding offences have declined more than recent years and just last week the Division for Transport confirmed that, even right after taking congestion out of the equation, recorded site visitors speeds have been dropping for a decade on all kinds of roads.”
Fines could be elevated fourfold
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