Warning by court boss

Fewer criminal courts will be sitting in Staffordshire because more cautions and on-the-spot fines are being handed out.

According to a leaked letter, the number of magistrates courts in the county is set to be slashed because of the amount of fixed penalty notices being used by police.

And the author of the letter, Staffordshire's justices clerk David Goodman, has expressed serious fears over the move, which has been branded "soft justice".

As clerk to the justices, Mr Goodman is a top legal adviser and responsible for the general administration of the county's clerks and courts.

He wrote to JPs in the county over plans to reduce the number of criminal courts sitting. The letter explains that the overall number of courts in the county is to be cut because of falling demand.

The clerk says it is due to the increasing use of the "cheaper" option of on-the-spot fines – and raises his fears that the trend is only set to accelerate.

The letter reads: "As a result of a reducing workload directly attributable to increased use of fixed penalties and cautions by the police and Crown Prosecution Service, a number of courts have had to be cancelled each week at each of our court houses.

"I am deeply concerned about the increased use by the prosecuting agencies of judicial powers but it seems that those judicial powers are likely to be used increasingly given that they are a cheaper means of sentencing than by going through a judicial process."

Stafford Borough councillor Kenneth Williamson serves as a magistrate in both Stafford and Cannock. He declined to comment on the issue in detail, but said: "It's obviously noticeable in court that we're sitting less than we would normally do, due to the cautions and penalty notices being handed out."

In Staffordshire, penalty notices for disorder issued to all offenders more than doubled in two years. They rose from 1,450 in 2004 to 3,261 in 2006. Meanwhile, magistrates court proceedings for shoplifting have fallen by 29 per cent in the past four years, those for being drunk and disorderly have fallen by 44 per cent and cases of drunkenness have more than halved, with a 51 per cent reduction.

Nick Herbert, the Shadow Justice Secretary, said: "The increasing use of penalty notices in leading to soft justice, where offenders who should go before the courts are able to escape with a fine which they might not even pay and avoid a criminal record. Magistrates courts are the places where summary justice should be done and seen to be done."