The last of the fines, worth $11,000, were erased by a magistrate in June because there was no chance he could pay.

But the red tape surrounding Andy continued yesterday. A sheriff threatened to arrest him over more old fines for petty offences.

The brain-injured alcoholic lived in and around Flinders St station and averaged two fines a week over five years.

One day he received 13 fines from three separate police officers.

Lawyers said yesterday at least 100 other homeless Victorians were in a similar situation with accrued unpaid fines of up to $50,000 each.

They said the State Government and police were wasting millions of dollars issuing fines and chasing payment from people who would never be able to pay.

Homeless Persons Legal Clinic co-ordinator Phil Lynch said a magistrate had dismissed what he thought was the last of Andy's fines in June, and ordered him to see a social worker.

"He was referred to a case worker and has since found a home and sorted himself out," he said.

"That intervention should happen at the very start, not five years and thousands of dollars down the track."

Simply handing out multiple fines to homeless people was a complete waste of taxpayer money, he said.

"And now they're wasting more taxpayer money chasing him," he said.

The extent of the problems are revealed in a submission to the State Government calling for changes in the way unpaid fines are collected from socially disadvantaged people.

The joint submission was prepared by the Homeless Persons Legal Clinic, Youthlaw and the West Heidelberg Legal Service.

The groups will meet officials from the Attorney-General's Department next week.

Welfare groups said yesterday Andy's case was common.

One teenage girl living rough had accrued $30,000 in fines for travelling on public transport without tickets, they said.

And a man who lived in his car had attracted unpaid parking fines of up to $10,000.

"These people have more pressing concerns than fines, such as where they're going to sleep or get their next meal," Mr Lynch said.

The submission argues the law should be changed to allow fines incurred by people suffering severe financial or social hardship to be cancelled. It says rather than issuing a fine, police or ticket inspectors should contact an outreach team or other social service.

Mr Lynch said the introduction of special sessions of the Melbourne Magistrates' Court for people with special circumstances had helped.

Youthlaw director Sarah Nicholson said changes would help her clients, but also save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. "You've got to wonder how much revenue they get back compared with what it costs to enforce the unpaid fines," she said.

A spokesman for Attorney-General Rob Hulls said he had just received the submission and could not comment on the case of "Andy".