New Zealand courts cancelled almost $100 million in fines and reparations in the past financial year - a jump of $14 million on the previous 12 months.
It was also a leap of more than $63 million in five years, figures released to The New Zealand Herald under the Official Information Act show.
Between July 2008 and June last year, courts wiped $95.1 million of the total $806 million in unpaid fines, the Ministry of Justice said.
This compared with $81.6 million the year before and $31.6 million five years ago.
Fines are cancelled if they are unpaid after the enforcement date, or if the court believes the defaulter cannot pay.
Wellington had the biggest amount wiped ($10.4 million), followed by Canterbury ($10 million) and the west coast of the North Island ($9.5 million).
Collections general manager Bryce Patchell said the fines were usually replaced with community work terms, home detention, curfews or imprisonment.
In the first five months of the 2009-2010 financial year - from last July to November - fines worth $50.1 million were wiped, the largest amount being $5.4 million from the central Auckland region.
The biggest single fine cancelled this financial year was one of $125,000, imposed on an unidentified Auckland company.
A Wellington company had an $85,000 fine wiped, and two other Auckland companies each had $60,000 fines cancelled.
Between June 2008 and last July, the biggest fine written off was $80,000 from a company that had been struck off the companies register and did not have any assets to seize.
Mr Patchell said the court could seize assets or income belonging to a company when it ceased trading, but its limited liability status prevented the court seizing assets belonging to directors or from deducting payment from a director's personal income.
The biggest amount in fines accrued - not remitted - by an individual or company this financial year is the $12,488 owed by a 25-year-old Auckland man for traffic offences.
And the biggest fine imposed this financial year is $391,671 on an individual for fraudulently using a document for pecuniary advantage.
It was followed by $325,000 on an individual for fraud and $138,397 on another person for evading taxes.
