DRIVERS USED AS £1BN CASH COWS

12million penalty fines as police go soft on serious road crimes

DRIVERS are now paying more than £1billion a year in traffic, speeding and parking fines amid claims they are being treated as ‘cash cows’, a report reveals today.

It says that 12million penalty notices are being given to motorists each year by local councils or police forces – the equivalent of one every 2.5 seconds.

That means close to a third of Britain’s 40million drivers are being hit with fines on an annual basis, most of them for relatively minor infractions.

The report, by the RAC Foundation, last night triggered fresh claims that drivers were being ‘fleeced’ so councils and police forces could plug gaps in their own finances.

Critics pointed out that penalty charge notices for using bus lanes had risen tenfold to 1.4million over the past decade, as councils have deployed cameras to catch out drivers.

And they said that while penalty fines have soared, the number of frontline traffic officers has been cut – meaning motorists are often getting away with more serious offences such as using phones at the wheel or drug driving.

Tory MP Charlie Elphicke said: ‘This is yet

more evidence of how councils are using motorists as cash cows to plug gaps in their own finances. It’s high time that they stopped using fines to fleece motorists.

‘There is a real concern that cameras are used to go after easy pickings when more should be done to tackle the most serious and dangerous driving.’

The RAC Foundation report looked at data from the year 2015/16, the most recent figures available. It found that around eight million penalty charges were doled out for parking violations, with another 2.5million for traffic offences such as driving in a bus lane or stopping in a box junction.

Of the remaining 1.5million, one million penalties were issued by police for speeding or running a red light, with half a million penalties dished out for other offences such as not renewing a driver’s licence and not having motor insurance.

Also, Scottish motorists are being hammered by a blitz on minor offences which are virtually ignored in many other police force areas. More than 3,000 on-the-spot fines for ‘careless’ or ‘inconsiderate’ driving were imposed in a year for offences such as hogging the middle-lane, tailgating, undertaking and splashing pedestrians.

Britain’s largest force, the Metropolitan Police, issued only 1,397 fines of this kind.

Scots also face being hit by crippling congestion charges and a levy to park at work as part of the SNP’s new war on motorists. In addition, drivers of 4x4s, lorries, vans and gas-guzzling cars face being banned from town centres or forced to pay to enter.

Dr Adam Snow, the author of the report, estimated that the 12million UK fines cost motorists around £840million in total, with the cash being collected by local councils, police and the DVLA.

Of this, the majority – £580million – was imposed by local councils. Almost £109million was collected by the police.

But the RAC Foundation has estimated the total figure could be more than £1billion, once penalties paid to private parking firms and fees for speeding awareness courses in England and Wales are included. Around 1.2million drivers take these courses each year. They can cost as much as £91, with £45 from each course going to the local police force.

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: ‘While wrongdoing should be punished and not excused, a decline in frontline policing risks an imbalanced approach to enforcement.

‘Millions of motorists are being caught by cameras, often for arguably minor misdemeanours, whilst more serious and harmful behaviour goes undetected. If thousands of drivers a day are getting tickets this is a clear indication of a system that is failing.’ The report also raises concerns that cameras are increasingly being deployed to keep motorists in check – while the number of dedicated police traffic officers fell by 24 per cent between 2010 and 2014.

These cameras are routinely used to catch drivers who enter bus lanes or make illegal turns at junctions. Some are ‘renowned moneyspinners’, the RAC Foundation said.

This year, a bus lane camera on Glasgow’s Cathedral Street was named as Scotland’s highest earner. It caught out one driver every 20 minutes, netting Glasgow City Council £1.5million.

Tory MP Julian Knight said: ‘These figures are alarming. No one can disagree with drivers being penalised for speeding and illegal parking but these numbers suggest punishment on a wholly disproportionate scale.’

Despite the growing network of cameras, the number of people killed on Britain’s roads reached a five-year high last year.

The UK Department for Transport described the increase in fatalities as ‘not statistically significant’.

It pointed out that the number of fatalities is down by 44 per cent over ten years.

The figures also stem from before tougher penalties and fines were introduced in March for drivers caught using hand-held phones following a campaign by the Mail.

Road Safety Minister Jesse Norman said: ‘We have some of the safest roads in the world but we are always looking at ways to make them even safer.’