Criminals owe more than £22 million to courts in Kent, it has been revealed.

The figure came to light following a Freedom of Information request by our sister paper the Kent Messenger, which also revealed courts imposed fines of almost £3m more than they collected last year (2015/16).

In total, judges and JPs at the county’s six magistrates’ and two crown courts ordered offenders to pay £15,828,535 of costs, fines, compensation orders, criminal court charges and victim surcharges.

The previous year £12,924,526 of orders were made. Part of the reason for the difference is that criminal court charges – which amounted to £1,725,445 – were in place for most of 2015.

The controversial charge was brought in by then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling in April 2015, before being scrapped by his successor Michael Gove eight months later as part of a review of financial sanctions.

Under the legislation offenders had to pay between £150 and £1,200 depending on their plea and the severity of the offence, but the policy was criticised as not fit for purpose and more than 50 magistrates resigned as a result.

Since April 2014 the amount owed in Kent has risen by almost £4m from £18,527,317 to £22,232,587.

The current figure is likely higher but the latest data is not yet available.

A spokesman for HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) said: “HMCTS takes the issue of financial penalty enforcement very seriously and is working to ensure that clamping down on defaulters is a continued priority nationwide.

“It actively pursues all outstanding impositions until certain they cannot be collected.”

Meanwhile, at the end of the last financial year there were 7,306 cases waiting to be dealt with at magistrates’ courts in Kent.

That number was down 275 from the start of the year, with the overall figure dropping at all but one of the county’s six facilities.

In total, 70,782 cases were dealt with, either at the time or by passing them to a higher court, with 30,668 going through Medway Magistrates’ alone.

By contrast, the much smaller Thanet Magistrates’ only dealt with 4,261 cases in 2015/16.

The previous year across the county, 73,037 cases were dealt with.

The figures show the huge scale of the task facing struggling courts in the county and come a week after we reported how Maidstone Crown Court is one of the worst in the country for offenders entering early guilty pleas.

Between 27% and 29% of defendants admitted offences at the plea and trial preparation stage at the court compared to 50% at Canterbury.

This was part of the reason why the backlog of cases stood at 700 last May with the court also recording an abnormally high cracked trial rate, with many defendants changing their plea on the day the trial was due to start.