Less than a third of fines issued by district courts last year have been paid

Cork District Court handed down fines with a value of €1.42m, with €453,000 of that total collected by the start of autumn. Picture: Larry Cummins 

Less than a third of the €20m handed down in fines in the district court last year has been collected from the people penalised.

More than €143,000 worth of fines have also had to be written off as “uncollectable”, according to the Courts Service.