Ex-traffic officer is making £1million a year out of courses for drivers who speed

Chris Howell is profiting from police policy which allows motorists to escape fixed three-point penalties by attending driving classes.

Last year Mr Howell and his wife Philippa received a £1.3million dividend paid by his company DriveTech. Pre-tax profits more than doubled to £2.6million - 18 months after launching London's speed awareness scheme.

Mr Howell's business is so successful he is now reckoned to be one of the highest paid ex-police officers in the country. The Association of Chief Police Officers said it was "deeply concerned" by the sums being earned by DriveTech.

"This scheme should not lay people a golden egg," said ACPO's Ian Aspinall, who is in charge of speed awareness courses nationally, adding: "It is all about community safety. This should not be about making money."

A spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, a motorists' pressure group, said: "People should not be getting rich on motorists driving marginally over the speed limit."

The DriveTech course is 90 minutes shorter than the current ACPO-standardised model. At £95 it is also more expensive than many other four-hour training courses, which can cost as little as £60.

The fee and length of course was set by the London Safety Camera Partnership, a body set up by Transport for London, the Met and others, to cut the number of accidents.

DriveTech receives a flat fee to run the courses although TfL refuses to say how much it is paid, citing confidentiality. A TfL source pointed out all revenue, once the Drivetech fee is taken out, is invested in road safety schemes across London.

DriveTech runs courses for the Met, City of London police and Thames Valley Police as well as smaller forces in Northumbria, Derbyshire and Hampshire. It paid a dividend to shareholders of almost £1.3million for the year ending 1 March last year. Mr Howell and his wife Philippa own 98 per cent of DriveTech's shares. It is not clear what proportion of DriveTech's turnover and profits are derived from the safety courses. The company also operates a fleet business, providing training to "predominantly blue-chip clients" such as ICI and Sainsbury's as well as a driving school.

Mr Howell, 46, set up DriveTech in 1990 after 10 years at Thames Valley Police, where he was a traffic officer based at Woodstock in Oxfordshire. He now lives with his wife in a large detached home in a private road in Maidenhead, which he bought for £975,000 in 2007. He recently bought DriveTech's headquarters in Crowthorne, Berkshire, for £650,000.

Mr Aspinall, who runs ACPO's driver offender re-training scheme, said: "Every pound that goes elsewhere out of this initiative is a pound lost to road safety."

He pointed out that some forces used a not-for-profit company to run the speed awareness courses with any profits reinvested in road safety. But he also emphasised that Drive-Tech had an excellent reputation for running speed awareness courses.

DriveTech said today it had reinvested "a significant amount of money" in supporting road safety initiatives over the past five years.

It also pointed out it had been running a "very successful commercial business since November 1990" - long before speed awareness schemes were launched. The firm now employs 300 people.

TfL said speed awareness courses had been hugely successful since launching in the capital in August 2006.

How motorists learn their lesson

■About 300,000 motorists have attended speed awareness courses nationally.

■The courses are offered to motorists caught on camera only slightly over the speed limit, according to a mathematical formula devised by the Association of Chief Police Officers.

■The formula means motorists caught doing less than 39mph in a 30mph limit and 50mph in a 40mph limit may be offered a course.

■They are offered at random, allowing drivers to escape a three-point penalty by attending the course instead.

■Only about half the 43 police forces in England and Wales offer the scheme.

■London's course is about 90 minutes shorter than most but at £95 is more expensive. This is put down to higher office rental costs and Londoners each having their own computer on the course.

■Initial research by ACPO suggests the re-offending rate could be as low as one per cent for those signing up to the courses.