Beware! Speed camera rakes in £1,600 a day
BRITAIN’S ten most lucrative speed cameras were revealed yesterday – including one that rakes in more than £1,600 a day.
The highest earning camera was found to be on the A1 northbound at Great Ponton, Lincolnshire.
It caught more than 6,000 speeding motorists in a single year, raking in a whopping £606,400 – or £1,661 a day.
In second place was the M180 just west of the River Trent near Scunthorpe, which caught 5,835 speeders, netting £583,500.
The M25 around London took the next two spots thanks to its variable speed limits and the introduction of hi-tech cameras that do not require film.
A camera between junctions 17 and 18 near Rickmansworth clocked up £538,500, while one at junction 5 earned £373,300. In fifth place was a southbound camera on the A12 at Stratford St Mary in Suffolk, which claimed £305,400.
The 2015 figures, the latest available, were revealed by Freedom of Information requests to Britain’s biggest police forces. They were calculated using the standard speeding fine of £100. The report was collated by brokers Carole Nash Insurance Consultants.
Head of marketing Rebecca Donohue said: ‘With some speed cameras issuing tickets that amount to well into the hundreds of thousands it’s understandable that ... motorists feel like they are being taxed again.’
Police defended the use of the ‘life- saving’ cameras, and said that cash raised from speeding motorists was used to fund road safety education. They added that in 2014 road crashes were estimated to cost the economy £16.3billion.
Home Office figures show that in 2015 the government issued 791,000 fixed penalty notices for speeding. This is up from 743,000 in 2014, and 712,000 in 2013 – the vast majority from cameras.
In the same year 166,695 people in England and Wales were sentenced for speeding offences. Last month fines for the most serious speeding offences were increased, with a maximum of £2,500 for speeding on a motorway.