Six months into Archibald Warner's tenure as Senior Magistrate, the amount of money owed to the courts has been cut in half to just over $1 million.

Mr. Warner welcomed statistics obtained by The Royal Gazette showing that in the first six months of his tenure, the outstanding fines owed to Government had dropped by half to $1 million. And Mr. Warner promised to be more vigilant in reducing the amount owed to Government's coffers but hoped the message gets out and people take steps to avoid spending a night in jail.

But a side effect of the crackdown has been the numbers of people being imprisoned until they can pay off their debt -- and over filling prisons.

Since April the number of warrants for outstanding fines has dropped to 2,994, which are reportedly to pre-1992 levels.

Apprehension warrants for failing to show for hearings among other things is also below 3,000 at 2,848.

That figure includes multiple warrants issued against accused people.

Magistrates have the discretion to allow a person time to pay the fines and many defendants have been abusing this privilege until they get caught.

Then they are brought before Mr. Warner -- sometimes years later -- and beg for more time to pay which often falls on deaf ears.

Recently, Mr. Warner forgave a fine handed down in 1991 against a man who had not run afoul of the law since then but jailed another man for several fines owed for up to five years.

"Specific steps have been taken,'' he said, "and it will always happen that we will see a rise in the numbers. But once we get over the hump, it will level off.'' Mr. Warner added: "I hadn't looked, but I'm glad to see those numbers are down.

"Yes, I'm confident that once the message gets out people will come to court or make arrangements that won't cause them embarrassment of being arrested on a warrant.'' Money owed to courts cut in half "What I do know is that when I took over there were a lot of SJA (Summary Justice Act) and apprehension warrants,'' he added. "And although I haven't checked the figures there were way too many.'' While he denied there had been a "crackdown'' by Police, Mr. Warner said both Police and the Department of Public Prosecutions had been "vigilant'' in dealing with the SJA warrants.

Magistrates' Court staff had also been playing a supportive role to process the warrants, which was part of the mandate Government insisted upon when looking for the head magistrate last winter.

Mr. Warner added: "Obviously, with regard to the reduction in the warrants, there must be continued cooperation between the courts and Police in getting these people before the courts.

"Clearly this has sent a message to some extent,'' Mr. Warner continued, "that we're not going to be satisfied with leaving the warrants laying around anymore. They represent unpaid penalties which if not enforced make a fool of these courts.

"I can say I will be meeting with Police soon with a view of actually getting Police to take some specific and direct steps to further reduce these warrants.'' He added: "That will take some planning and organisation, because we're talking about a lot of people.'' When asked about concerns that conditions were worsening in the Island's prisons because of the effort at enforcement, Mr. Warner reiterated -- as he has said from the bench -- he had to do the job he was hired for.

"That's not my concern -- and I don't say that to be harsh,'' he said. "The prisons may or may not have enough staff. But that's not my problem. I'm comforted that there is no one who has been sent to prison by these Magistrates' Courts who don't deserve to be in prison.

"If that creates problems, well...we've got to get our job done and continue doing our job,'' he added. "We're not just picking them up and locking them up. We're following the law.'' Yet to be addressed by the courts is the system of "extreting'' or seizing bail money from accused people as punishment for not showing up for court dates.

Mr. Warner admitted this is not used as often as it could be in local courts but he said it was an option.

Often while on the bench magistrates have expressed consternation that defendants sign for bail and then not show up for court dates, often with the flimsiest of excuses.

"That's the aim of bail and having a surety,'' Mr. Warner explained. "We tell them the whole idea is that we're binding them to be liable for that amount if the conditions are not met.'' Bail jumpers and others who fail to meet the conditions of their bail could always be at risk of losing some money even if they are innocent.

"In the vast number of cases whether the bail amount and the surety if there is one is extreted is a discretion of the magistrate,'' he continued.

Smiling, Mr. Warner added: "Very often that gets resolved in favour of the person who signed bail. But certainly, if it becomes necessary...''