Dummy cameras fooling motorists

The working parts are moved from box to box to fool speeding drivers

More than half the speed cameras on roads across the eastern region are not working at any one time.

A survey by a car magazine has revealed that many of the yellow boxes are simply dummies.

Road safety partnerships which run the cameras have admitted that some boxes may flash, but do not contain cameras.

But all the partnerships said they move the equipment around so drivers do not know which cameras are dummies and which are not.

The results from the safety partnerships were published in Auto Express magazine, which show that in Essex, two-thirds of the 96 cameras are fully functioning at any one time.

In Northamptonshire (42 cameras) the figure falls to 40% and Norfolk (18) to 39%.

In Bedfordshire and Luton (54), the figure stands at 33% and in Cambridgeshire (with 66 cameras) just 25% of the roadside boxes actually contain equipment capable of issuing a ticket to a speeding motorist.

In the Thames Valley area only 9% of the 298 fixed safety cameras are live - the lowest proportion in the whole of the UK.