THE region's courts are writing off hundreds of thousands of pounds in fines because officials are failing to enforce them.

Now finance chiefs say there is an urgent need to improve the information available on offenders so that they can be tracked.

In many instances, court summons are failing to arrive, meaning people are convicted in their absence.

Enforcement teams are also failing to trace offenders because information is incomplete. As a result, scores of warrants are rejected each week.

The northern group of magistrates courts committees recently met to discuss the issue of enforcement.

Brin Jones, head of finance at County Durham Magistrates Courts Committee, which is owed £2.5m, said as many as 50 arrest and seizure of goods warrants were not executed every week by bailiffs contracted to enforce fines.

Last year the committee wrote off almost £500,000.

He said: "We are finding that, increasingly, false names and addresses are being given to police in the first instance, and we are looking at ways that more checks can be carried out within the system."

Anne Smith, head of fines at Cleveland Magistrates Courts Committee, said it had written off £337,000 in the past year, the majority because offenders were untraceable.

It is owed £6.4m in total, up £800,000 from the end of the financial year 2002.

She said: "We are trying to improve the information that is collected before somebody is sent a court summons."

Philip Littlewood, head of finance for North Yorkshire Magistrates Courts Committee, said it was one of the better performing areas, but was still owed more than £2.8m.

Inspector Denis Hogan, of Durham Constabulary's community justice department, said police were looking at procedures to see if any loopholes could be closed.

But he added: "There are limits on how many checks an officer can physically carry out on an individual in the time available when they are arrested and processed."

Civilian enforcement officers are able to make checks on the Police National Computer and with the Department of Work and Pensions to trace a person's whereabouts.

But if these are exhausted, the fine is written off in many cases.

Last year, a report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee found that £148m, equal to 41 per cent, of penalties were written off or cancelled either because the criminal could not pay or could not be traced.