According to a new study conducted by the Liverpool Hope University, a third of drivers in Britain is given a penalty notice each year.
It was revealed that there are 12 million penalties handed out to UK motorists annually, meaning on average a penalty is given every 2.5 seconds, which racks up to approximately &840 million in fines every year.
This study was conducted for the motoring research charity the RAC Foundation and was carried out by Criminology Lecturer at Liverpool Hope University, Adam Snow.
The most common fines by some distance were parking penalties, as it found that 8 million of the 12 million total offences were due to drivers overstaying or parking in the wrong place.
It was also found that a huge 2.5 million fines were for local authority bus lane and box junction penalties, which were closely followed by 1 million speeding and red-light penalties.
The remaining half of a million penalties to take the total to 12 million, were due to drivers late licensing and insurance penalties.
Dr Snow’s report suggests that the high number of penalties and fines is related to a growing reliance on cameras from the police force due to budget cuts. While cameras can make the process of recording motor offences much more efficient, they are unable to use discretion or common sense, so a minor or borderline offence will be viewed the same as any other.
This opinion is shared by the RAC Foundation Director, Steve Gooding; “To maintain its legitimacy, automatic enforcement must be viewed by the public as proportionate.
“While wrongdoing should be punished and not excused, a decline in front-line policing risks an imbalanced approach to enforcement. Millions of motorists are being caught by a camera, often for arguably minor misdemeanours, whilst more serious and harmful behaviour goes undetected.”