Financial errors that may lead to the loss of £1.4 billion could have been prevented with the use of top-quality accounting software.

The sum is owed in unpaid fines and penalties dished out in UK courts, but the National Audit Office (NAO) has refused to give permission for the money to be collected, suggesting no accounting records relating to the punishments can be found.

The NAO attacked the courts for being unable to provide proper accounting records for the fines, confiscation orders and penalties it is responsible for collecting from criminals.

A total of £1.9billion was owed to the courts by the end of March but only £457million of this was deemed likely to be received

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: "Because of limitations in the underlying systems, HM Courts Service has not been able to provide me with proper accounting records relating to the collection of fines, confiscation orders and penalties."

Using capable accounting-specific ERP software could make it easier to plot statistics and keep records.

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