Fine bludgers owe $15m to State

Fine bludgers from five Kimberley towns continue to be a burden as Premier Colin Barnett prepares to slash 1500 public sector jobs to tackle WA's slowing economy.

The amount owed from outstanding fines and infringements has increased from $14.5 million in 2013 to $15 million last year.

Department of the Attorney-General figures obtained by the Broome Advertiser show that as of October 2014, there were about 9778 parties from Broome, Derby, Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing and Kununurra owing money to the Fines Enforcement Registry.

The towns have a total population of about 36,000 people.

Even though the number of regional parties with debts to the FER has fallen slightly from 10,000 in 2013 to 9978 last year, the outstanding amount has gone up by half a million dollars over the past 12 months.

The amount includes all court fines imposed and registered with the FER, as well as those that have not been paid by the due date and are subject to action.

Attorney-General Michael Mischin said the outstanding amount had been imposed by courts, which had not yet been paid.

"Everything imposed by a court now goes to the FER and does not wait until the due date has passed so of course it has increased because it is all channelled through the FER," Mr Mischin said.

"Secondly, in the last couple of years there has been a vast increase in the amount of fines for particular offences, so the amount is going to go up as well."

Mr Mischin said before a term of imprisonment for default was imposed people had the option to pay, enter into an instalment arrangement over time or agree to work and development, which reduces debts by $350 a day.

Opposition leader Mark McGowan said it costs taxpayers more to keep fine defaulters in prison than the cost of the fine.

"As it stands, fine defaulters generally go into prison on a Friday, spend the weekend sitting watching TV and are then released on the Monday with a clean slate. It just doesn't make sense," he said.

Latest figures reveal a year after tough measures were introduced to deal with people who flout infringements and court-ordered penalties, there are almost 842,500 fines owed by 355,008 individuals and companies across the State.

In the same period, there were nearly 90,000 licence suspensions for unpaid fines.

Since August last year, the State's top 100 fine defaulters have been named and shamed on a government website.

The Fines Enforcement Registry was also given the power to put wheel clamps on the cars of chronic fine defaulters and remove numberplates.