Speed cameras rake in £250m as record 7,600 drivers a day are caught

Drivers were left almost £250 million out of pocket last year after speed cameras snared a record number of motorists.

New police figures show 2.8 million fixed penalty notices were sent to drivers caught on camera, an average of more than 7,600 every day – or one every 11 seconds.

That’s up 20 per cent on the figure for 2020, when lockdown reduced traffic flow, and up 17 per cent on 2019 figures.

The news follows separate research which found the most prolific speed camera in the UK – on the A40 in West London – caught 49,050 speeding cars in a year.

Of those snared nationwide in 2021, a record 813,000 were given £100 fines, with 1.2 million motorists avoiding a fine and penalty points by taking a speed awareness course, also costing them about £100 a time.

A further 268,000 drivers were sent straight to court because their speed was so high, or they already had a string of previous offences, where they were fined an average of £223 each. 

The remaining 500,000 tickets were cancelled, often because police could not trace the driver or the legal paperwork was faulty.

It is estimated that there are some 4,000 active speed camera sites across the UK.

The A40 camera, between Acton and Perivale, was found by website Confused to be the most prolific in the 2021/22 financial year. 

It caught more than twice as many drivers as the next most active camera, on the M25 in Surrey, which nabbed 23,134, while the third-placed, on the M4 near Bristol, caught 18,317.