Legal experts and court officials are concerned about the number of people facing jail for not paying traffic fines, the NRC reports on Monday.

Last year some 57,700 people were threatened with imprisonment if they did not pay their fines, up around 10,000 on 2008. The figures come from the government’s fine collection agency CJIB.

Some 60% of the unpaid fines ended up being disputed in court, the NRC said. There are no figures detailing how many people actually ended up in jail.

‘We have seen a sharp increase in the number of threats of jail,’ district court judge Albert Ploeger told the paper. ‘It is too simple to blame the crisis because in general in these sort of cases I see people who have debts despite the economic situation.’

District court judges can jail people for up to seven days for non-payment but this does not remove the obligation to pay.