Speeding fines: the cameras that catch the most drivers revealed

We look at the most prolific speed cameras on UK roads and explain what to do if you think you've been unfairly charged.

Even the most careful of drivers will have had the odd near miss with a speed camera.

The sinking feeling in your stomach when you realise that you’ve just gone past a speed camera, and were perhaps going a little faster than the speed limit, is horrible.

And getting caught breaking the speed rules can be punishing when it comes to your finances too.

However, which are the most prolific speed cameras in the country, the ones that are busiest at snapping drivers who are going a bit too fast?

That’s what a new study from Confused.com has set out to discover, with the price comparison site submitting Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to the 46 main police forces across the land to establish how many intended prosecutions their cameras were responsible for last year.

Only 36 forces actually responded, but based on that info here are the 10 ‘busiest’ speed cameras in the country, and how many prosecutions against drivers they have been responsible for over the last year.

What is particularly notable though is the geographic spread.

It’s not like there is one particular area of the country where speed cameras are particularly busy ‒ each of the top 10 is represented by a speed camera overseen by a different constabulary.

The FoI data revealed that there were a total of 1.74 million speeding offences captured by speed cameras last year.

Of course, given the fact that 10 police forces did not respond, the actual total will inevitably have been higher.

The consequences of being caught speeding

Being caught speeding may have a painful impact on your bank balance.

First and foremost there is a £100 fine to pay, as well as having three points put onto your driving licence.

These points have to be declared to insurers when taking out a car insurance policy, and will mean that your cover is far more expensive.

After all, when an insurer considers an application, fundamentally the quote you get will come down to how likely they feel you are to need to make a claim.

Having a history of speeding will make you appear a bigger risk, and therefore have a knock-on effect on the cost of your policy.

There’s no hard and fast rule over how much it will hike the cost of your cover by, though it could be by as much as 10%.

According to the data, around 457,000 of those flashed were hit with the fine and points.

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What about the rest?

That leaves an awful lot of cases though of drivers who were caught by a camera speeding while behind the wheel.

So what happened to them?

Some of them will have disputed the case, and ended up going through the courts. If guilty, they will end up with an even more significant punishment.

However, there will be some drivers who have been wrongly accused of speeding, and so should fight their corner.

We’ve put together a guide on what to do if you believe you’ve been issued with an unfair speeding fine.

However, an awful lot of drivers instead opted to take a speed awareness course. This may be available as an alternative to the fine and points.

You will have to pay to enrol in the course, and give up a day to attend, but it means you won’t have the points on your licence and therefore the more costly car insurance.

According to the data, almost 700,000 speeding drivers opted to go for the course.