Hundreds of thousands of pounds in parking fines haven’t been collected, a freedom of information request has revealed.

The information showed that there are currently 8,970 fixed penalty notices in the island that are at ‘warrant’ status.

This is when the court process has been exhausted and the money from the fine should be collected by a coroner.

Fixed penalty notices start from £60 and are increased to £90 when they reach fine status through the courts.

This totals around £810,000 in uncollected proceeds from fixed penalty notices. Some of these tickets are believed to be from repeat offenders who refuse to pay the initial fine, which is not a criminal offence.

The Manx Independent understands that coroners, who collect the outstanding debts, have trouble getting proceeds from late fixed penalty notices because of limited powers.

As of October 13, there were 19 fixed penalty notices that are at fine status, which happens after 42 days of not paying the fixed penalty notice.

If the warrants are not executed then they are returned to the courts and go through the system again.

This happens when a person does not have the funds or assets to pay the amount due on the notice.

The Manx Independent understands that this can lead to a backlog of warrants against people who re-offend and do not pay or people who cannot pay their fines due to financial difficulty.

Mark Wrigley, the coroner for the sheading of Rushen, feels that more can be done by the government to clamp down on the unpaid penalties.

‘The coroners do the best they can but the legislation needs to be improved.

‘It’s more down to the powers-that-be.

‘In a few other places, there are loads of people getting parking tickets but the legislation is not strong enough.’

Mr Wrigley was not surprised at the figure that was quoted to him regarding unrecovered funds from fixed penalty notices.

He said: ‘Many people we deal with are prioritising their heating or food over parking fines.

‘The coroners will always attempt to recover any debts, but we also acknowledge the difficulties many people are experiencing since the Covid pandemic.’

The coroners have the ability to seize cars if there is no outstanding finance and no other assets available to pay the fine.

However, the Manx Independent understands that the situation must be extreme to warrant the seizure of a vehicle.

The Department of Infrastructure has issued 65,502 fixed penalty notices since October 11, 2011, the earliest date from which information under the Freedom of Information Act can be given out.