Ninety per cent of motorists would back using speed cameras to catch tax and insurance cheats

A road safety charity is calling on the police to take note of the overwhelming support for using cameras to catch motorists flouting driving legislation.

A study of more than 2,000 UK drivers revealed 90 per cent backed the idea that speed cameras should be used to catch those without valid insurance, MOT or vehicle excise duty (commonly referred to as road tax).

Road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, which conducted the survey, says official figures show that someone is injured by an uninsured driver on UK roads every 20 minutes, while more than a quarter of motorists don’t know when their next MOT is due. Meanwhile, there are around 630,000 unlicensed vehicles in the UK.

Neil Greig, IAM RoadSmart director of policy and research, said: “These results paint a very clear picture. Law-abiding motorists are in favour of the police using existing equipment to help make our roads safer by catching motorists who think the rules don’t apply to them.

“Of course, the primary purpose of catching speeding motorists is paramount but it should not be overlooked the suffering that drivers of vehicles which are uninsured, unlicenced and without a valid MOT can cause other road users.”

The study also showed motorists are overwhelmingly in favour of using speed cameras to deliver automatic fines. For example, 82 per cent said motorists who run red lights should be automatically fined, while 80 per cent said the same for those caught driving more than 10mph above a posted speed limit on residential streets.

Greig added: “There is no excuse for speeding, driving uninsured, unlicenced or without a valid MOT. If speed camera partnerships are issuing speeding tickets they should also follow up on a wider range of offences and this is backed by the vast majority of drivers.

“Getting lawbreakers off our roads could significantly help reduce the number of casualties caused by motorists with no regard for their motoring responsibilities.”