Kirklees Council has taken more than 5,000 council tax defaulters to court in the past two weeks to collect debts totalling £5.3 million.
The crackdown is the first of a series of planned court actions against council tax defaulters this year.
Councillor David Hall, the cabinet member for the revenues and benefits service, said: "We have a strict policy against people who do not pay their council tax. Why should the vast majority of good and regular council tax payers subsidise the freeloaders who think they should not pay?"
Last year the Council passed 10,000 cases to bailiffs, obtained 159 warrants for arrest and made 30 people bankrupt for non-payment of council tax.
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