Adult and youth courts in the Midlands are being cancelled because more offenders are being given on-the-spot fines, according a letter leaked to The Times.

Magistrates have agreed to reduce the number of criminal courts sitting because fewer offenders are being taken to formal court proceedings.

The letter, sent to all magistrates in Staffordshire, is the latest sign of the consequences of the increasing use of on-the-spot fines and cautions to deal with offenders.

It says: “As a result of a reducing workload directly attributable to increased use of fixed penalties and cautions by the police and Crown Prosecution Service, a number of courts have had to be cancelled each week at each of our court houses.”

The letter, from Staffordshire’s justices’ clerk, goes on to explain that the overall number of courts in the county is to be cut because of falling demand.

He adds: “I am deeply concerned about the increased use by the prosecuting agencies of judicial powers but it seems that those powers are likely to be used increasingly given that they are a cheaper means of sentencing than by going through a judicial process.”

He says that one longer-term effect of less court work will be in the county’s ability to recruit magistrates.

The number of crimes dealt with by convictions in the courts was overtaken for the first time in 2006 by the number handled by the police through cautions and fixed-penalty fines.

The number of penalty notices issued for disorder in the 43 police forces in England and Wales rose by 37 per cent from 146,500 in 2005 to 201,200 in 2007. The largest number of these were for behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress and being drunk and disorderly.

The number issued for shoplifting rose from 23,800 in 2005 to 42,700 in 2006.

In Staffordshire penalty notices for disorder issued to all offenders rose from 1,450 in 2004 to 3,261 in 2006.

Magistrates’ court proceedings for shoplifting have fallen by 29 per cent in the past four years, for drunkenness by 51 per cent and for being drunk and disorderly by 44 per cent.

Nick Herbert, the Shadow Justice Secretary, said: “The increasing use of penalty notices is leading to soft justice, where offenders who should go before the courts are able to escape with a fine which they might not even pay, and avoid a criminal record.

“Magistrates’ courts are the places where summary justice should be done and seen to be done, and justice is undermined if the courts are by-passed through the inappropriate use of administrative sanctions.”

On-the-spot fines were introduced to allow police to deal with simple and straightforward cases promptly, leaving courts to handle disputed and more complex offences.

Barristers and solicitors have complained that fines and cautions are being used for more serious crime even though they are meant to be used only for minor offences.

Cindy Barnett, the chairman of the Magistrates’ Association, said: “We are extremely concerned if an inappropriate use of out-of-courts disposals is removing serious cases from court.”

But she said that the workload of courts varied across the country. In some areas the courts’ workload had fallen but in other parts of England and Wales it was increasing.

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