Speeding tickets hit a record high with 7,400 issued each day – as drivers are treated like ‘cash cows’.

The number of speeding tickets issued to motorists has risen – amid new claims drivers are being treated as ‘cash cows’.

Official data showed 2,715,000 penalty notices were issued for speeding in 2023 – the equivalent of more than 7,400 a day.

That’s up from 2,496,000, about nine percent, at 2022 levels.

Last year’s record figure – covering England and Wales – was 1.2 million higher than the total number of speeding tickets issued in 2011, the year the current record system began.

The Home Office The data showed 98 percent of speeding offenses were detected by roadside cameras.

Of the total 2.7 million, 390,000 stood at the Metropolitan Police region, a three percent annual increase; and 2.3 million in the rest of the country, a 10 percent increase, according to the statistics.

Howard Cox, of pressure group Fair Fuel UK, said car owners were ‘in a relationship’.

‘Me tens of thousands of 20mph zones Of course, it’s a legitimate, legal driver who is caught doing a minimum 23mph,’ he said.

‘Police and local authorities are using these new low penalty thresholds to trick drivers whenever possible to top up their depleted accounts.

‘The new Transport Secretary will continue to push for cash-grabbing driving restrictions across the UK to keep motorists in charge of cash cows.’

AA president Edmund King said the number of tickets was rising because of the change in 20mph speed zones and confusion about ‘different speed limits’ on the roads.

“On different sections of road with different speed limits we see a change in speed in the area and it is often not clear if it has returned to the national speed limit,” he said. talk.

‘These signs should be clarified so that drivers know what the limit is, because at the moment many people are confused.

‘We also believe that 20mph zones should be focused on areas where they are needed – such as outlying schools – because you have problems when they are distributed across the roads.

‘Friday’s data also showed that of drivers who were issued speeding tickets in 2021, more than 1.3 million chose to take a ‘speeding awareness course’ – the highest number since the start of records in 2011.

Meanwhile, drivers of sub-standard vehicles are less likely to receive tickets from the police.

More than 48,300 tickets were issued for MOT issues or vehicle damage, down from 51,700 last year and down more than 40 per cent on 2011, while has exceeded 82,000.

It has fallen despite the the number of cars on the road in the UK is increasing more than three million in the period to 33 million.

This means that drivers who break the speed limit will be penalized more, while those who drive below the standard – or dangerously – will get away with traffic.

Drivers fined for using a mobile phone while driving increased to 45,600 but down from 164,400 in 2011.

The number of breathalyzer tests carried out by police rose three per cent to 276,914, but was still below the 2009 peak of more than 700,000.

In 2020 it was confirmed for the first time that speed cameras would be introduced to collect money from motorists rather than to prevent accidents.

A report by police watchdog HM Inspectorate of Constabulary said some cameras were installed because their locations were ‘good catch-alls’ for fines.

Security camera connections have prevented police from trying to educate drivers to protect their money from the cameras, he added.

The key entry confirmed what many motorcyclists had long suspected of being cash cows.