€300 million owed in unpaid fines

Around €300 million is owed from almost 300,000 unpaid fines dating from 1980, of which €256 million was due to enter state coffers, it emerged on Friday.

Some 252 fines totalling €277,852 will never be collected as the people who owed the money have since died, in addition to the fines owed by 76 companies totalling €166,310, that have declared bankruptcy over the past 43 years.

According to the justice ministry figures that were handed over to MPs and published by Phileleftheros on Friday, the number of uncollected fines from 1980 until today totals 293,150, which corresponds to €300,211,453.

Specifically, €256,536,949 concern civil debts, money owed to municipal authorities, the now-defunct Cyprus Tourism Organisation, social insurance, the water development department, income tax, fines for criminal offences, military court fines and traffic violations, the latter which numbers 105,737 fines or just over €28 million.

Municipal authorities have 51,327 fines pending, totalling €18 million and other offences of €35 million from 48,793 cases.

The remaining €43 million are classed as uncollectible fines orders imposed in the context of private criminal proceedings and maintenance orders, according to the figures.

Of the total amount of €300 million, some €192 million or 261,397 concern fines imposed on natural persons, while around €109 million concern the debts of legal entities.

The issue of extrajudicial fines has been on the radar of the audit office. Its last report was in November 2023 and slammed the police for failing to forward all the information the office needed to carry out a thorough audit.