Thousands of foreign drivers escape paying speeding fines each year

While some countries fine on-the-spot, in this country a camera catches a speeder on film and they are found through the DVLA.

But British police are not allowed access to vehicle registrations systems in other countries.

Escape: Police do not bother to pursue speeding tickets incurred by foreign drivers

So when a driver from abroad is clocked they can not be traced easily and the police often drop the case.

Jo Abbott, of the RAC Foundation, believed a Europe-wide policy change was needed.  

She said: 'The real problem is that the EU does not yet have a directive or agreement that says that there is a system needed to help collect these fines, although they are talking about it at the moment.  

'In some countries they have on-the-spot fines. So, for example, if someone from Lancashire speeds on a French road, they could be fined on the spot.  

'And if they don't have the money, they could be taken to a cash machine to pay the fine.'

The foundation would prefer traffic police to be 'out there patrolling the roads' rather than using speed cameras, added Miss Abbott. 

Lancashire Police reported having to rip up 10,500 tickets since 2004 because they could not trace drivers - equaling £641,400 in lost fines.

MP for Hyndburn Greg Pope said: 'These statistics are appalling. I am sure motorists will be horrified that they have to pay but these foreign drivers don't have to.  

'My understanding was  we have an agreement with other EU countries so we can just contact the equivalent DVLA to trace these drivers.'

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans also said: 'Clearly this is very disturbing. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are being lost in fines because of this loophole and foreign drivers are proving themselves to be above the law.  

'Urgent cooperation is needed among all countries to ensure that offenders are not getting away with it.'

Officials said tracking down all tickets unpaid by overseas motorists would be too time-consuming and was not covered by Freedom of Information.  

A police spokesman added: "This is a nationally recognised issue and plans are in place at national level for future enforcement techniques.  

'However, at the moment there is an obvious difficulty in tackling this issue as we do not have access to foreign registration systems.  

'In Lancashire, when we have a large influx in any one area of foreign motorists caught speeding, we are able to put markers on those vehicles so that our Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) teams are then able to stop the vehicles and obtain details from the driver.'