By Steve Bargeton, political editor

MORE THAN 15,000 motorists were caught by speed cameras every month last year, according to the latest official crime figures published yesterday.

At almost 181,000, the number of speeding offences was up 62% on 2002 and took the total number of offences to a record high of 586,000.

With Scottish motorists paying almost £11 million last year in speeding fines, there were fears last night that speed cameras are being used as an easy way to fleece drivers.

Scottish Tory transport spokesman David Mundell said, “They have to be used for their original purpose to improve safety and save lives.

“They cannot be used as cash cows to rake in revenue from motorists.”

The Tories are committed to an independent audit of the 6000 speed cameras in Britain to ensure they are positioned in only “genuine accident black spots.”

SNP justice spokesman Nicola Sturgeon said that there was a fine line between saving lives and raising easy revenue from motorists.

Defending the cameras last night, Andrew Wilkie, of the Scottish Safety Camera Programme, said speed cameras could produce a real road safety benefit.

He said an audit, which claimed that cameras have saved 100 lives in Scotland, had shown that there was a 35% cut in the number of pedestrians killed or seriously injured at camera sites and a 33% reduction in crashes involving personal injuries.

“This report is excellent news for the Scottish Safety Camera Programme and shows that our commitment to improving road safety through enforcement and education is making a real difference,” he said.

What is not in dispute is the huge rise in speed camera offences. The 2003 figures for motoring offences show that while dangerous and careless driving offences have gone down over the years, speeding offences have soared.

In 1994 there were just under 86,000 speeding offences recorded, but by 1997 the figure had increased to nearly 92,000. The following year speeding offences passed the 115,000 mark, then went up to 125,000 in 1999.

The following year they dropped sharply to under 117,000, but rose again in 2001 to 123,000, and 112,000 in 2002.

Bob Muir, project manager for the Fife Speed Camera Partnership, studied the findings in detail yesterday and maintained the Fife operation had been a “significant achievement,” writes Stewart Ross.

“No figures have been published in the tables for Fife in terms of killed or seriously injured because the figures are considered statistically insignificant, but a 15% reduction of personal injury collisions has been seen in Fife.

“This is a significant achievement for us in a year that Fife as a whole suffered the worst casualty figures for at least seven years.”

Mr Muir said that in an independent survey carried out by Scottish Opinion on behalf of the Fife Speed Camera Partnership, a representative cross- section of drivers in Fife were asked if they supported the use of safety cameras as a method of reducing casualties, and 77% said they did.