200,000 drivers evade speed camera justice

Less than half of the 360,000 motorists caught by speed cameras paid the £60 fine while the remaining 205,000 drivers either refused to pay or hid from the law.

The figures, from the London Safety Camera Partnership, compare poorly to other areas such as Kent and Bedfordshire which boast a 100 per cent prosecution rate.

Road experts and politicians today blamed the figure on poor government records and an increase in the number of false number plates being used - making motorists harder to trace. They also blamed the justice system for failing to set aside court time for speeding drivers, allowing thousands of offenders to get off by simply refusing to pay.

Jenny Jones, of the London Assembly Green Party, condemned the failure to prosecute speeders as "an insult to all the Londoners who are killed or injured through speeding, as well as to all those drivers who stay within the speed limit".

She said: "Bus lane offenders in London are almost twice as likely to pay up as people who have been caught speeding." Paul Watters, the AA's head of roads and transport policy, said the situation was unfair on honest, traceable, drivers.

He said: "It seems that once again, motorists who are legally and honestly registered are subsidising drivers who purposely seek to evade the law." He claimed the problem had been aggravated by road charging in the capital which had prompted a rise in people using false number plates.

Ms Jones believes the solution to the problem is to "outsource" the administration of London's speeding fines to neighbouring regions. An internal Metropolitan Police Authority report has highlighted the need for more staff in the "back office" to process them.

The LSCP - a consortium of Transport for London, the court service and police, which is responsible for administrating the fines - agrees more staff are needed but Ms Jones says it is not clear when this will happen.

A LSCP spokesperson said: "The London Safety Camera Partnership is working to increase the number of people who pay fines for speeding offences.

A lack of court time has further hindered our efforts to increase the number of prosecutions for offences.

"The recent fall in the conversion rate of penalties is due to the introduction of speed awareness courses, which enable offenders to take a course rather than be prosecuted."

Since March last year the number of magistrates court "spaces" has been increased by 33 per cent.

The Mayor has also confirmed that the idea of outsourcing fine processing is also being considered.

He wrote: "This will enable the police to target their resources on the policing element and track down more of those drivers who systematically choose to ignore the ticket."

Despite the Met's inability to fine more speeding drivers, the number of speed cameras is set to rise to an alltime high in London, an internal MPA report reveals. It rose from 268 in 2000 to 548 last year. This year another 50 are expected to be put up at the roadside although it is nowhere near the number demanded by road safety experts.

Parking wardens who dish out too many tickets in Islington are being given lessons in common sense. A combination of role-play, computer presentations and speeches are used to get wardens to think before targeting drivers.