FINE dodgers are being targeted by the courts.

Operation Crackdown will see enforcement officers from Her Majesty’s Court Services (HMCS) chasing up offenders in Southampton in particular during November.

They will have the power to issue warrants to confiscate property from those who have not paid up, and in some cases, arrest those who refuse to co-operate.

Simon Townley, HMCS area director for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, said: “Our message to fine dodgers is clear: pay up now or face the consequences.”

In the last financial year alone, 653 warrants to seize property were issued by magistrates’ courts in the south, while 404 attachment of earnings orders and 8,968 deduction from benefits orders were issued in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.