Criminals owe more than £111 million in fines and other payments to courts in the London area alone.
Figures revealed through the Freedom of Information Act showed 533,500 active accounts were being held by the courts at the end of January.
There was a further £4 million owed in 16,500 accounts in Watford and Dorking courts, the figures showed. It could mean the overall sum across England and Wales would top £1 billion.
The £115 million owed in London, Watford and Dorking included unpaid fines, legal aid payments, costs and compensation to victims.
In January, a report by the Commons Public Accounts Committee said millions of pounds in fines were not collected each year.
MPs called for "strenuous steps" to improve the collection rate, and raised the prospect of charging interest on unpaid fines.
Courts in England and Wales issued fines to the tune of £350 million in 2004/05 but they collected only £222 million and wrote off £75 million of outstanding debts.
The Department for Constitutional Affairs has admitted it does not know the true extent of unpaid fines.
Research showed only one in 20 people paid their fine on the day of sentencing, and half paid within six months.
Figures released last year showed the backlog of unpaid fines in the North-East and North Yorkshire grew from £15.5 million to £20.4 million.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2007, All Rights Reserved.
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