End The Automation

Stop the crims getting away with it...

The number of motorists prosecuted for offences detected by cameras increased from 1.1 million in 2001 to 1.5 million in 2002 – an increase of 40%. The RAC Foundation are now calling for revenue from speed cameras to be spent on boosting the number of traffic police to fight car crime and target dangerous drivers.

Other revenue from cameras should be put back into road safety by improving dangerous junctions and other stretches of road.

Even though the total number of offences dealt with were up, the majority of these offences were either enforced by cameras or were parking offences (7.6 million). Of the 7.6 million parking offences just 1.2 million were dealt with by the police or traffic wardens.

Breath tests were down by 9% and careless driving offences were done by 8%. Despite the increase in speeding offences, fewer of these offences were dealt with directly by police officers.

The RAC Foundation believes that some hard-core criminals are getting away with serious motoring offences and other crimes because cameras are increasingly replacing traffic police. Research for the Home Office clearly shows that serious motoring offenders are more likely to be involved in mainstream crime.

The RAC Foundation Car Crime Fact File shows:

• Car crime costs £3.5b to the UK economy and affects 2.5million people pa
• 80% of drivers without a valid tax disc are likely to be involved in some form of criminal activity
• UK is the car crime capital of Europe with 30% of European car crime committed in the UK
• There is an increased accident risk among unlicensed and disqualified drivers. They are between three and nine times more likely to be involved in accidents than lawful drivers
• 75% of vehicle crime offenders have convictions for other types of offences
• 73% of vehicle crime offenders have tested positive for illegal drugs
• VED evasion has increased to 4.5%. This equates to a loss of £193m per annum to government funds from the 1.7m cars that are untaxed.
• 25% of motor-cycles are untaxed
• There are 2.1m vehicles on the road with no registered keeper

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