Motorists Up in Arms at 40 Per Cent Increase in Speeding Convictions

As the seemingly fabricated speeding conviction figures are escalating it is obvious that motorists are not realising where they will ultimately end up paying more – for insurers the speed cameras have given them a golden handshake because when a motorist gets penalty points insurance premiums go up.

If you go online to get a quote for car insurance, with and without convictions, you will see what a difference it makes. Even a first offence can catapult a premium up by 10 per cent and add another camera flash and it will surge up a further third. Another offence will really push a premium into outer space.

Many people do not realise that a driving conviction stays on your insurance record longer than it does on your driving license and more than one offence will have a cumaltive affect which could amount to thousands of pounds, far more on top of the fine of 60 pounds.

The Association of British Insurers says that drivers who break the speed limit are a greater risk and so it is only right that convictions should be included when calculating a premium.

But the latest speeding conviction figures suggest that our driving standards must be deteriorating remarkably rapidly and the roads must be filled with high-octane racers as never before. The number of offences has increased by more than 700,000 in two years and by more than 500 per cent in six years.

In comparison, endorsements for dangerous driving have changed relatively little over the same period.

Of course, if motoring penalties are being seen as a back-door car tax, they are entirely voluntary, because no one has to break the speed limit. And the Home Office says that pilot studies show that cameras are cutting road deaths and injuries.

But looking a little deeper at the statistics does give a fascinating snapshot into our complicated relationship with motoring law.

There are now more than 400 motoring offences (including parking) for every 1,000 licensed cars each year, which means that with the current trends it will soon be a minority activity not to be fined.

Another insurance hot topic is whether differentiating between male and females is unfair discrimination. But men are responsible for the vast majority of dangerous driving, theft, careless driving and insurance dodging. Figures also show more than two-thirds of car thieves are under the age of 21.

Another depressingly persistent figure is on average almost 10 people die each day in accidents involving a drunk driver.

Nobody would want to make any excuses for dangerous, aggressive or drunken drivers. But drivers who have to fork out for what might have been a modest speeding infringement can feel that they're paying heavily, while an infuriatingly large number of illegal drivers get away without paying any insurance or tax.

The RAC Foundation says there are more than 2m cars without any registered keeper, suggesting the extent of unregulated, unlicensed motoring.

While legitimate drivers face an ever-more closely monitored and expensive system of fines, congestion charges, parking costs, toll roads, tax and insurance, it seems there is another parallel world that seems to get away with driving around without paying. This confirms the alarming claims of the Motor Insurers' Bureau, reported by Jobs & Money last autumn, that in inner-cities up to a third of drivers are uninsured.

These fraudsters will hardly be worried when the average fine for insurance offences is only £152 - considerably less than the cost of insurance. The RAC Foundation argues that depending on the automated work of the speed camera will not put a stop to such high levels of criminality and revenue should be put into policing and not more cameras.

But there are also signs that the rapid increase in speeding fines is spawning its own type of crime. A report this week warned of an increase in number plates being stolen, which are then used to deceive speed and congestion charge cameras.

Insurers have also heard claims that drivers within a family are illegally "sharing" penalty points, by claiming that someone other than the actual driver was at the wheel.

But there can be few complaints from an unnamed driver caught by police in Scotland this week, who was travelling in excess of 150 miles per hour while using a mobile phone. Explain that one to the insurers.