Speeding fines cost Brits millions

11/07/11

By David Clement

The government has pocketed up to £10,000 an hour in speeding fines in the last five years under Labour, according to official data released today.

An astonishing £1 billion was paid to the taxman in speeding tickets, half during the last five years, according to the first full research on the speed camera regime under Gordon Brown reported by the Daily Mail.

The data makes clear the benefits of cheap car insurance to hard-pressed motorists, who also swell the public coffers thanks to the UK's high level of fuel taxation.The figures revealed 8,282,905 fixed penalty notices were issued to drivers in England and Wales for speeding between 2005 and 2009.

Motorists, hit with fines of £60 per offence, therefore paid £496,974,300 in only five years - and in the later years all the income went directly to the Treasury.